Obama Push for Schools to Allow Multi-Gendered Restrooms and Showers Strips Parental Authority and Local School Autonomy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 13, 2016
CONTACT: J.P. Duffy or Alice Chao, (866) FRC-NEWS or (866)-372-6397

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Obama administration sent guidance to schools throughout the country directing school administrators to allow self-identified “transgender” students to use the restroom and changing rooms of the student’s choosing. This “significant guidance” claims to be adding no new “requirements to applicable law.” However, its description of Title XI requirements is clearly legally binding. The administration is attempting to pressure schools to adopt the administration’s poorly-supported interpretation of “sex discrimination” (banned under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972) to cover “gender identity” under threat they may withhold federal funds from states’ education programs.

The Obama administration has already filed a lawsuit against North Carolina because of the state’s newly enacted law, commonly referred to as HB 2, which designates restrooms in government buildings for biological males and biological females.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins released the following statement:

“Once again the Obama administration is going beyond the limits of their constitutional authority to rewrite laws legally adopted by Congress.  Under the guise of 'protecting students from discrimination,' these federal agencies are using the bully pulpit to strip parents and local school districts of the right to provide a safe learning environment for their children. 

“Parents should demand that school boards not sacrifice the safety of the children out of fear of losing federal funding, which on average only amounts to about nine cents of every educational dollar.  It is also time for the Republican leadership in Congress to act and rein in this administration.  Bottom line, the president's decree should be resisted with every legal and moral instrument we have available to us in this country.

“If the American people do not speak up now on an issue like this, there's no limit to what President Obama's administration, or future liberal presidents, will be emboldened to do,” Perkins concluded.

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