Flashback to April 2016, when the Obama administration attempted to force public schools to provide access to locker rooms and bathrooms according to the "gender identity" rather than biological gender, dubbed the transgender bathroom battle, where students born with a penis and testicles would be allowed to use the womens' bathroom if they "identified" as a women, and women born with vaginas could use the mens' room if they "identified" as men.
In May 2016, Obama's Department of Education informed schools "that federal law requires them to allow students to use restrooms and locker rooms "consistent with their gender identity." This was challenged in court, with a federal court blocking implementation of Obama's order.
In a "dear colleague" letter to school districts first reported by the New York Times, the Department of Education maintains that requiring transgender students to use same-sex facilities violates Title IX, the 1972 law that prohibits discrimination based on sex. The letter was provided to USA TODAY by two administration officials who would not discuss it publicly because it hadn't been sent.
"When a school provides sex-segregated activities and facilities, transgender students must be allowed to participate in such activities and access such facilities consistent with their gender identity," reads the letter, signed by two Obama administration officials responsible for enforcing civil rights laws: Assistant Secretary of Education Catherine E. Lhamon, and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta.
One of the most public controversies over this issue occurred when the department store chain Target decided to wade into the battle, announcing "we welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity," which set off a firestorm and cost them significant losses when a boycott was declared against them, which had damaged their brand so badly that by August they were prepared to spend $20 million to add private bathrooms.
As the graph above shows, Target still has not recouped the losses they started suffering in April 2016, directly after they announced their transgender bathroom policy, especially since news reports showed men were caught recording women undressing in Target stores.
Enter Donald Trump the candidate, giving his conservative critics ammunition to their claims he was not a conservative and causing his supporters to want to bang their heads into a wall, when he publicly invited Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner to use any bathroom he/she wanted at Trump properties, which he/she did, and even published a video.
TRUMP MOVES HARD TO THE RIGHT - SHOCKS SUPPORTERS
For many Trump supporters, myself included, this was further proof that he wasn't a conservative, nor a liberal, but rather and independent and we had to decide what our priorities were and decide accordingly as to whether the continue supporting him. Were his positions on immigration, terrorism and the economy enough to earn our continued support, so that we could fight him later on social issues such as Obama's transgender policy?
Understanding his mistake, a month later Trump did subsequently state in an interview that he would he’d rescind the Obama policy, but no one was really sure if he considered it a policy priority or if he was saying what supporters wanted to hear.
The DOJ, under Obama was attempting to get a partial stay so that the federal court order that ruled against him would only apply to the 12 states that filed a lawsuit against his order, but under Trump, the DOJ has withdrawn that request, indicating the Trump administration will not be trying to overturn the federal court's ruling against the Obama "guidance."
This is not the first time that Trump has shocked conservatives, as shown back in December when the conservative site, the National Review, asked "What’s Behind Trump’s Move to the Right?, in reference to his choosing such a conservative cabinet, where they interviewed people close to Trump that offered their thoughts on why he has shifted in a more conservative direction, considering he was a registered Democrat until 2009.
The answers ranged from Trump was understanding the problems facing the nation, to Trump's liberation from establishment obligation, with one Trump aide highlighting how his "Democratic" so-called friends had turned against him once he became a registered Republic and joined the race.
3. The viciousness with which left-wing allies of Hillary Clinton and their media enablers attacked Trump persuaded the New York billionaire that there was no making peace with his adversaries. "He is not a traditional conservative, but he sure as hell knows who his enemies are," a Trump aide told me. "He won’t be forgetting that either he defangs them, or they will defang him."
LIBERAL MEDIA REPORTING 'FAKE NEWS'
The "spin" in the liberal media is already in full force, as they are using buzzwords to try to control the narrative, with sites like Huffington Post claiming "it signals the unlikelihood of Trump’s Justice Department moving forward on transgender rights." Others are claiming that Obama's policy was "protections" for transgender students."
Neither of those assertions are true and could be considered "fake news."
Transgender people, and those that "identify" as a gender they are not biologically compatible with, have the same rights under the constitution that every American has. What the LGBT community and the Obama administration was doing was trying to afford them more rights than what is afforded to every American.
To claim that the Obama policy was a "protection" for transgender people, is misleading when their argument was they were "uncomfortable" being forced to use a bathroom that matched their biological gender, so the Obama policy and LGBT activists think it is their "right" to make men, women and male and female children uncomfortable by being forced to share locker rooms, bathrooms and changing rooms with people of the opposing sex, in order to make transgenders more comfortable.
Make no mistake, it is not just a couple of liberal media sites that are using this type of misleading terminology, as we note Think Progress headline stating "DOJ Files Brief Undermining Protections of Transgender Students."
As we highlighted yesterday, this type of terminology and outright lies claiming that forcing people to use bathrooms that match their biological gender, or even creating bathrooms that are gender neutral so that no one is made uncomfortable, is somehow "discrimination" against the transgender community, is nothing more than keywords and dog whistles which misrepresent the truth in order to incite protests and howls of unfairness.
BOTTOM LINE
They do not want "equal rights," they want the right to force the majority to be uncomfortable and unsafe, to appease the "comfort" of a minority, at the expense of safety for all.
I'll admit, I am more than just pleasantly surprised that on this issue, one where we believed we would have to speak up loudly and end up criticizing President Trump, despite being supporters, that his administration has solidly come out on the side of "safety," rather than appeasing the unreasonable and illogical demands of the LGBT community.
Evidence of how unreasonable their argument is, see a flashback of a transgender student refusing the option of using a gender neutral bathroom in favor of using a female bathroom, despite the fact that he is a biological male.
