You’ve seen those ridiculous “Coexist” bumper stickers, right? You know, the ones where the word is spelled out using religious symbols from Christianity, Islam, Paganism, Gay rights, Judaism, and so on?
I call it ridiculous because, as someone once wrote: “The C wants to kill the E, X, T, and the O. The O offers peaceful non-resistance, which will be ineffective if real trouble breaks out. The E feels like it’s been oppressed, making it intolerant of the C, the X, and the T. The I and the S are numerically irrelevant, but are just necessary to spell out the word. And the sticker is mostly directed at the T (or the Christian), who ironically poses no threat whatsoever to any of the others.”
—John Stonestreet, in a BreakPoint commentary dated April 21, 2016—
Many points can be made in opposition to laws and policies that would allow transgendered individuals to use the restroom different from the one designated by their own biology. One of the strongest such arguments affirms what ought to be obvious—that these policies allow predatory men to feign having gender identity issues and invade women’s restrooms. Of course, no one should lightly dismiss the needs of someone struggling with gender identity. At the same time, we also must care about how women would feel about sharing a restroom, not just with a predatory man, but also with a biological male who identifies as a woman. Female objections to a transgendered man in the ladies’ room aren’t indications of bigotry or hate, but of the legitimate desire for privacy when using the bathroom, locker room, and shower.
Do we really need to wonder how most women would feel about a man—any man—in the women’s bathroom? For anyone who does wonder, help is available. In his most recent Internet video, You Tuber Joey Salads conducted an experiment to find out. You can watch his video here.
In writing about Salads’ experiment, Michael Cantrell observes,
Interesting how most women aren’t comfortable with the idea of going to the bathroom with a man who pretends to be a woman. Perhaps the world isn’t quite as crazy as I originally thought.
If the majority of women aren’t comfortable with transgenders using their restrooms, why are their concerns being ignored for the sake of a very small minority?
Liberals claim to be about women’s rights, yet here they are, forcing ladies to do something against their will and stripping them of their right to privacy.
The hypocrisy is astounding.
Unfortunately, a bathroom bill that would have protected privacy rights in Tennessee’s public schools was withdrawn by its key sponsor in the Tennessee House of Representatives. Rep. Susan Lynn’s action effectively killed the bill for this legislative session, although passage was far from certain. Because children are of infinite worth, one wonders why, despite fierce opposition to the proposal, the legislature and the governor were not willing to draw a line in the sand to protect students in the Volunteer State.
Meanwhile, in North Carolina and Mississippi, which passed a religious liberty law, economic threats continue to mount. The NBA has scheduled its 2017 All-Star game in Charlotte, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is demanding changes in the law. Yet he, along with a host of other business leaders and entertainers like Bryan Adams, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, and Boston, are either threatening to exercise or are exercising outright the very freedoms they wish to deny those whom they disagree. So much for coexistence!
The bathroom bill in North Carolina actually can be called a privacy rights and business rights law, because it not only protects women, but also allows private businesses to set their own bathroom policies. Even so, politicians like President Barak Obama, New York Mayor Bill de Blaiso, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, to name a few, continue to revile and mischaracterize the law. They’re even trying to punish North Carolina for it. Even Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke out against it, effectively ignoring the risk to women that the law mitigates. Ted Cruz, who supports the law, criticized Trump, accusing him of giving in to political correctness.
Returning to the debate in Tennessee, we note that the Obama administration said it was pleased the state’s bathroom privacy law (of course, the administration didn’t call it that) had failed to pass. This shouldn’t surprise us, since, as we noted in a previous post, the Justice Department filed a “statement of interest” in court that argued Title IX requires that transgendered individuals be allowed to use whichever restroom they choose. In the case, a Virginia school district had dared to limit access to its restrooms on the basis of students’ biological sex. The lower court ruled against the administration’s arguments, but the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals now says the lawsuit against the Virginia school district may proceed.
It was a 3-judge panel at the 4th Circuit that made this decision, with 2 of the 3 judges having been appointed by President Obama. According to one report, this panel ignored the plain language of Title IX, just as federal bureaucrats also have ignored it in recent months. In his End of Day email report to his supporters dated April 20, 2016, Gary Bauer wrote that
the federal court did not decide the issue. But their 2-to-1 opinion does allow a lawsuit against a Virginia school district to proceed, suggesting that gender specific bathrooms represent some form of unconstitutional sex discrimination.
The ACLU and other left-wing groups are applauding the decision as “a complete vindication of the Education Department’s interpretation of Title IX.” But the Obama Education Department’s interpretation is utter nonsense!
Title IX was passed by Congress in 1972 to eliminate blatant sex discrimination between men and women in educational opportunities. No one in 1972 had transgenderism in mind.
But that is how Obama’s radical bureaucrats are interpreting—rewriting—the law today. And left-wing judicial activists on the courts are going along with it.
Fortunately, Judge Paul Niemeyer’s dissenting opinion made the case for common sense. He wrote:
This holding completely tramples on all universally accepted protections of privacy and safety that are based on the anatomical differences between the sexes. . . This unprecedented holding overrules custom, culture, and the very demands inherent in human nature for privacy and safety, which the separation of such facilities is designed to protect. More particularly, it also misconstrues the clear language of Title IX and its regulations. And finally, it reaches an unworkable and illogical result. [You can read more from Judge Niemeyer’s dissent here.]
Where is the left’s concern for the privacy rights of young girls?
Are you prepared to accept boys using your daughter’s bathrooms and locker rooms at your local public school? Are you prepared to share a public bathroom with someone of the opposite sex?
Are you willing to accept this assault on common sense?
The good news is that there is some indication that a great many people aren’t willing; this evidenced by the fact that when Target Stores announced a company-wide bathroom policy that allows biological men in women’s restrooms, and vice versa, a backlash began. Go here to read a handful of the negative reactions to Target’s guidelines.
Encouraging its readers to push back against the retail giant, an article at www.barbwire.com stated, “Clearly, Target’s dangerous new policy poses a danger to wives and daughters. We think many customers will agree. And we think the average Target customer is willing to pledge to boycott Target stores until it makes protecting women and children a priority.” On the American Family Association’s website, tens of thousands of angry consumers expressed their opposition and pledged to participate in a boycott.
This indeed is good news, but we’re actually not ready to leave Gary Bauer’s statements just yet. Read them again. Note that Mr. Bauer said, among other things, that the court is rewriting the law. It is critical that we understand this point—and that courts are not authorized to make or rewrite laws. Only the legislative branch of government pass laws. Judges are charged with the task of interpreting them.
Watch legal expert and Family Action Council of Tennessee’s David Fowler explain how 2 members of the 3-judge panel are rewriting the law. If you don’t remember anything else from this post, remember what Mr. Fowler says here. Fowler makes some comments that are specific to Tennessee, but that doesn’t take anything away from his case that the ruling is unlawful. Everyone in America needs to understand why.
Members of the judicial branch will get away violating the Constitution in this way only if we permit them to do so. Yet, if we are to succeed in holding them accountable, we first must comprehend how we got to the place in our culture where we are debating whether or not we will allow men in women’s restrooms, and why, for millions of people, this issue isn’t a “no-brainer.”
We’ll explore this question next week. Stay tuned, and stay in prayer for our nation. America needs prayer perhaps now more than ever!
Copyright © 2016 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All Rights Reserved.
For further reading:
Turning American Law Upside Down for the Transgendered by David French
Capitulation on Religious Liberty Laws Is Shameful and Shortsighted by the editors of National Review
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