President Donald Trump ’s announcement that he plans to roll back federal protections for transgender students Wednesday caught almost no one by surprise.
Still, lawmakers, advocacy groups and celebrities were united in their disdain for the move, which reverses former President Barack Obama’s directive requiring schools to allow trans students to use restrooms that correspond with their gender identity. However, the move did receive a smattering of applause... from right-wing conservative organizations, naturally.
The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins argued that Trump’s withdrawal of the trans protections wasn’t anti-LGBTQ, but rather “pro-democracy,” in a Thursday blog post. “States and local districts are in the best position to decide what serves their students best. If it’s letting teenage boys shower with the girls, then by all means, pursue that,” he wrote. “Just don’t be surprised when families rise up ― as they have all across this nation ― and demand better.”
Echoing those sentiments was the Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver. Speaking to WND, the attorney deemed Obama’s directive “a lawless act” that was an example of the previous administration’s attempt to impose the LGBTQ “agenda” on public schools. “Allowing boys to use private facilities for girls violates the right to privacy and places girls at risk of sexual abuse,” he said.
American Family Association radio host Bryan Fischer, who is no stranger to anti-LGBTQ declarations, first tweeted his support Thursday.
In a Friday blog, he elaborated further, arguing that transgender people were suffering from “mental illness.” As such, Trump was merely “restoring” protections rather than removing them, he wrote.
He is returning to the states the right to reinstate safeguards for the sexual integrity, modesty, and privacy of the girls and young women under their charge. They will no longer have to fear who’s in the next stall or who will sidle up to them in the shower.
If you have a family member who thinks that aliens are talking to him through his radio, it does not help him to accept his version of reality. It does not help him to regard this imagined form of communication as just as normal and healthy as a chat with family members over dinner. It does not help him to punish those who try to help him face the reality that aliens are not in fact talking to him at all.
Meanwhile, the Alliance Defending Freedom’s Gary McCaleb said that the move was the “right thing for the privacy, safety, and dignity” of American students. “No longer will federal officials distort federal law that is meant to equalize educational opportunities for women, and no longer will they force local officials to intermingle boys and girls within private areas like locker rooms, showers, hotel rooms on school trips, and restrooms,” McCaleb said in a statement.
Though it’s easy to dismiss these views as hopelessly out-of-touch, they are a reminder that the quest for LGBTQ equality is far from over. Be ready to fight, folks.
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