Georgia Joins Lawsuit Against Federal Transgender Directives
The State of Georgia has joined a lawsuit initiated by the state of Texas asking for relief from the threats to withhold federal funds if schools do not comply with policies outlined in a Dear Colleague letter released earlier this month that directs schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms, locker rooms, and other facilities corresponding to the student’s gender identity rather than their gender assigned at birth. In addition to Georgia and Texas, plaintiffs include Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Maine, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Among other things, the suit alleges that the directives regarding Title VII, the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and Title IX, which covers sex discrimination in education; violate states’ rights under the 10th Amendment, and equal protection of the law under the 14th amendment because they treat students who identify as their birth sex and students who identify as the other gender differently. The lawsuit also claims that the regulations are arbitrary and capricious, and are unconstitutionally coercive.
Shortly after the Dear Colleague letter was released, Governor Nathan Deal and Attorney General Sam Olens issued statements indicating they were monitoring the situation, and asking State Scuool Superintendent Richard Woods to formulate policies addressing the issue. Today, upon joining the Texas suit, Olens issued this statement:
The guidance letter is yet another example of the President’s unconstitutional overreach. The Constitution gives only Congress the power to write and rewrite laws. Threatening to withhold taxpayer dollars from schools if they don’t comply with this new and legally unsound mandate is unconstitutional. I will continue to defend the Constitution on behalf of Georgians.
You can view the suit here.
While most of the objections to the directives in the guidance letter deal with restrooms and locker rooms in elementary and secondary schools, virtually nothing has been said about another portion of the Dear Colleague letter that appears to apply to public colleges and universities. Section 3, which provides guidance on how to deal with various scenarios concerning the rights of transgender students includes this paragraph:
Title IX allows a school to provide separate housing on the basis of sex. But a school must allow transgender students to access housing consistent with their gender identity and may not require transgender students to stay in single-occupancy accommodations or to disclose personal information when not required of other students. Nothing in Title IX prohibits a school from honoring a student’s voluntary request for single occupancy accommodations if it so chooses.
This section would appear to require colleges and universities to assign dormitory roommates based on a student’s gender identity, rather than the sex assigned at birth. And that would mean that the transgender rights issue now extends beyond school systems and now involves the University System of Georgia and other colleges and universities that accept federal aid.
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Jon Richards
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Good. This notion that children are capable of deciding what “gender” they are is complete nonsense that I refuse to have shoved down my throat by an overreaching federal government. And why do we use the phrase “gender assigned at birth”? There is no such thing. It’s not like after a baby is born there is a team of doctors that are all, hmmm, what gender do we assign this one with the penis? It’s decided from conception in your DNA.
Actually, Lady T— that’s exactly what happens some times. Either because the baby has ambiguous genetalia, or both a penis and a vulva, or because of a botched procedure like a circumcision, doctors will assign an infant a gender.
Those rare cases aside, your DNA isn’t your destiny. Its the pool of genes you have at your disposal, and how they are expressed is contingent on many many factors. People who experience gender dysphoria aren’t doing it to shock you, or for all the charms of being bullied and scourged by peers and politicians. Why not do the christian thing, and love your neighbor.
Lady T –
That is literally exactly what happens. The doctor looks at a baby’s genitals and assigns a gender. Most of the time they’re right. Sometimes they’re wrong. Body parts aren’t a good way to figure out what someone’s gender is.
“Body parts aren’t a good way to figure out what someone’s gender is.” That a joke right. Please tell me that’s a joke. I’ll just go ask my 10 month old if he wants to be a he or she.
Relax it is less than 30 basis points of people. People who are transgender have been documented for years. As far as being child predators, they are gay, straight, black, white, all religions…..I was Psychology minor, even taught in the old days.
Thanks for that wonderful and enlightening commentary. As usual, you bring completely unrelated topics into the discussion of whether a penis is a male organ or female organ. Thanks Dr. Konop
I did not want to debate with you about this, but that is not the point when you are dealing with transgenders. In a basic level 1 101 Psychology class you would of missed the question, NO PHD needed on this issue. Thanks for calling me doctor, not sure if that makes me feel smart or is the bar to low?
Whatever helps your ego doc. You know everything.
Also, there is a big difference between someone born with two separate organs and Bruce Jenner who clearly has a mental disorder that needs to be addressed before he hurts himself.
The Eiger,
Glad you are concerned about them getting hurt, but below you will see basically biggest risk is shamming them. Think about it?
…….People know that transgender people are at a higher risk of suicide, but why this risk is higher is often not understood by the public, or misused by people who wish us further harm. The statistic that 40% of transgender people have attempted suicide is used all the time to justify all sorts of things that have absolutely zero basis in science.
Why transgender people are at risk is something that has actually been studied in great detail by psychologists and sociologists. They have found many of the same factors increase risk across multiple peer reviewed studies……….
Rejection by friends and family increases suicide risk
Discrimination increases suicide risk
Physical abuse increases suicide risk
Being seen as transgender or gender non-conforming increases suicide risk
Internalized transphobia increases suicide risk
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brynn-tannehill/the-truth-about-transgend_b_8564834.html
“People know that transgender people are at a higher risk of suicide,”
Yes, because it is a mental disorder that should be treated with kindness and respect. Not by encouraging someone to accept their mental illness as a trait.
The E,
That or people like you spew hate at the and treat them like crap? You are so full of BS…………At the end, God is about love, you seem to forget that a lot.
What did you not get about the words kindness and respect. You are having a lot of difficulties reading tonight.
But you win John. You can post last. I’m going to bed to contemplate how our country got to the point where trying to convince people a penis isn’t a male reproductive part is something that is talked about on blogs.
The Eiger (aka the NEOCON Hack),
A little help for you! I hope this helps so you do not need a PHD to understand the topic before you comment. Just trying to help via cost of education today!
FROM: American Psychological Association
Transgender is an umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth. Gender identity refers to a person’s internal sense of being male, female or something else; gender expression refers to the way a person communicates gender identity to others through behavior, clothing, hairstyles, voice or body characteristics. “Trans” is sometimes used as shorthand for “transgender.” While transgender is generally a good term to use, not everyone whose appearance or behavior is gender-nonconforming will identify as a transgender person. The ways that transgender people are talked about in popular culture, academia and science are constantly changing, particularly as individuals’ awareness, knowledge and openness about transgender people and their experiences grow.
Sex is assigned at birth, refers to one’s biological status as either male or female, and is associated primarily with physical attributes such as chromosomes, hormone prevalence, and external and internal anatomy. Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for boys and men or girls and women. These influence the ways that people act, interact, and feel about themselves. While aspects of biological sex are similar across different cultures, aspects of gender may differ.
Various conditions that lead to atypical development of physical sex characteristics are collectively referred to as intersex conditions. For information about people with intersex conditions (also known as disorders of sex development), see APA’s brochure Answers to Your Questions About Individuals With Intersex Conditions.
http://www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/transgender.aspx
I’m just going to leave this here. From an actual doctor. A John’s Hopkins doctor. You’ve heard of that place right……..
“Yet policy makers and the media are doing no favors either to the public or the transgendered by treating their confusions as a right in need of defending rather than as a mental disorder that deserves understanding, treatment and prevention. This intensely felt sense of being transgendered constitutes a mental disorder in two respects. The first is that the idea of sex misalignment is simply mistaken—it does not correspond with physical reality. The second is that it can lead to grim psychological outcomes.”
“The transgendered suffer a disorder of “assumption” like those in other disorders familiar to psychiatrists. With the transgendered, the disordered assumption is that the individual differs from what seems given in nature—namely one’s maleness or femaleness. Other kinds of disordered assumptions are held by those who suffer from anorexia and bulimia nervosa, where the assumption that departs from physical reality is the belief by the dangerously thin that they are overweight.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/paul-mchugh-transgender-surgery-isnt-the-solution-1402615120
So you admit they employee experts in their field of study. Thanks.
The Eiger,
LOL, you use a clip from the Wall Street Journal over what APA that certifies the doctors recommends…..LOL LOL ……even for you this is way over the top! Would use the WSJ or APA for questions on this issue? LOL
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/04/transgender.aspx
Did you read the article…………… I know clicking on links and reading can be difficult. Reading op-eds from experienced doctors that disprove your flawed ideas of what you think you know can be frustrating.
Your point is we should disregard the certification board for Psychiatrist? HUH?
Reading Is hard ain’t it. DISORDER is the key word.
The E,
Do I really need to show the treatment is helping them with excepting their identity? Are you that thick?
And Konop’s link clearly calls it a “disorder”. Not a trait. Disorders are treated and not enabled.
Really? Please share the scientific evindence that proves that and as Konop would say leave emotion out.
The E and Lady T,
I posted it already? look under lady T from me…..Straight from the APA not a business newspaper.
Read the damn article John. Can a respected Doctor not write an op-Ed? You know it disproves your view of what you think you read.
It is stupid argument, and you know it! Why can you not admit, you are flat out wrong! Is it really that hard for you?
Andrew: Since you are so enlightened unlike the rest of the rubes like me, please explain to me the traits of a biological man who has a female gender. What traits define your “gender”? Your feelings? And if this is the case, please explain to me what it feels like to be a woman. Without resorting to sexual stereotypes.
Because it ain’t there. Thanks though. It’s easier to make up facts.
The E,
What part of this from the APA do you not understand?
…………..In addition, more studies are exploring treatment for transgender people who seek it, as well as ways to combat the discrimination many still face. Plus, many universities — Brown, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton and Yale among them — are starting to offer health insurance plans that include coverage for hormone therapy or gender-reassignment surgery for transgender students, a move unheard of just six years ago.
APA and other groups have increased their advocacy on behalf of transgender people as well. In 2008, APA’s Council of Representatives adopted its Resolution on Transgender, Gender Identity and Gender Expression Nondiscrimination to support full equality and “the legal and social recognition of transgender individuals consistent with their gender identity and expression.” The resolution also recognized the benefit and necessity of gender transition treatments for some people and called on insurance providers to cover these treatments when professional evaluations deemed them medically necessary.
Now, being transgender is being acknowledged as “part of the human condition,” says lore m. dickey, PhD, visiting assistant professor at University of Southern Mississippi, who studies the area…….
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/04/transgender.aspx
Robbie: Have you had a baby? I’m guessing not. I have, and I knew the gender/sex of my baby by the time he was a 10-week old fetus because of DNA testing that revealed him to be male. This is before the doctors could even see sex organs in an ultrasound. That is because it is a matter of biological fact as to whether a person is male or female. It is not dependent on your feelings.
I truly have compassion and sympathy from people who suffer from gender dysphoria. I wish our society was more willing to try to help these people than to reinforce their mistaken belief that there is something wrong with them and encourage them to mutilate their bodies. This notion that someone has a “gender” opposite of one’s biological sex that is dependent your subjective feelings is a fallacy.
FYI from The APA:
…………In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association added gender identity disorder to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). While controversial, this was seen as a way to ensure that transgender people had access to care. In a nod to progress, the next DSM will replace “gender identity disorder” with “gender dysphoria” as a diagnosis.
The shift underscores that being transgender is not a disorder in itself: Treatment only is considered for transgender people who experience gender dysphoria — a feeling of intense distress that one’s body is not consistent with the gender he or she feels they are, explains Walter Bockting, PhD, a clinical psychologist and co-director of the LGBT Health Initiative at Columbia University Medical Center……………..
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/04/transgender.aspx
Sooooo……… The APA clearly says it’s a disorder.
HUH
What are you talking about? Did you read the article? Hit the link and read LOL LOL LOL
It is so sad that people like you continue the make up “facts” instead helping sick individuals.
The E,
You know more than the APA………LOL LOL LOL ………You call me Dr Konop LOL
I just know how to read.
Lady T – got a great one for you!
Here is a person with female secondary sex characteristics who identified as female, brought a pregnancy to full term and gave birth to a healthy child… and who has 46,XY karyotype. By your definition, she’s not a woman, because she’s chromosomally male. So is her daughter.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2190741/
I dont think having a baby has much to do with it. The question should be do you know anyone who is trans? One of my best friends in college was a (post op) trans woman. She is a remarkable woman, and I can tell you regardless of what was on her birth certificate…she was never a man, never felt like she was a man, and is very happy that she went through the ordeal to get to where she is now. She is HAPPY. Thats not something she would have been otherwise. She is married to a wonderful man and has 2 adopted children. She is a nurse and lives an otherwise ordinary life. Who are you to know whats best for someone like her? Answer…you’re not qualified to make that call.
I would suggest you watch the following PBS Frontline special. Then, see if you still feel the same way
http://www.pbs.org/video/2365520005/
Welcome down the rabbit hole
AliceOlens.You got this all wrong, this is a jobs social welfare program! Why focus on infrastructure, education…….when we can hire bathroom cops. I am confused, because is this not usually a liberal Dem idea? But hey,we got a lot of public bathrooms think of the jobs?
There is has to be a name for this pathetic disease! It is running rampant through this thread!
Symptoms include an un-ending fascination with, and demands for the dominion of, other people genitalia.
What shall we tag this mental malady?
The commentary above further reinforces the levels of discomfort/dissonance associated with issues where people are faced with non-binary realities in conflict with preconceived binary notions.
In all seriousness, as you know I am a fiscal conservative. I am against Affirmative Action, yet for years I have also been very outspoken about equal opportunity for all. I am sensitive, why people from the left want AA protections, via attitudes of people like Sen McKoon….. using fear to pass laws, searching for problems, for political purposes. I still think the best solution is fighting for equal opportunity, not forced equal results. Yet when people support McKoon style politics, it hurts the argument against AA.Than, hate groups, use the language, pushed by politicians, making it even harder to fight AA laws. The real solution, is the more people inner mix, race, religion, sexuality…..the less it becomes an issue. I good example is even Robbie, posting on this blog, it has changed how people think about gay people, agree or not on issues.
Look how the KKK perverts the message!
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/kkk-tries-to-exploit-transgender-bathroom-hysteria-to-scare-up-new-members-in-alabama/
………KKK tries to exploit transgender bathroom hysteria to scare up new members in Alabama………
………The flier calls transgender people an “abomination” in accordance with the King James Bible, which never specifically refers to transgender people or gender identity. It also quotes Deuteronomy 22:5, “A woman shall not wear that pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment. For all that do are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.”………….
You telling me the person at my door in a white burqa with a pointy top and a deep voice selling slightly used crosses from China was not a fashionable Muslim transgender but a KKK member ?
If they were fashionable it would be off white, or cream colored…stark white is so 70’s
You all should watch this…it might actually change some minds
http://www.pbs.org/video/2365520005/
I’ve been trying to find out just how many people this actually affects, scouring the interweb. Nobody seems to know because there is no concrete way to identify, just somebody says they don’t “feel” like what their genitalia says they are. But the highest guess is .3 of a percent of the population. And the feds are suggesting states create bathrooms in every school for someone who most likely is not there? Or if that .3 of a percent of a person is a pointer who goes into the sitters’ bathroom, do they run all the girls out before he/she goes in? And vice versa for the pointers’ bathroom? And how do we tell which is which? No wonder kids aren’t learning today in public schools; they’re too busy being told by adults that they have to figure out their “gender identity” in order to go to the bathroom.
REALLY? This is what our federal government is focusing on instead of the VA problems, illegal immigration, crumbling national infrastructure, etc. out the wazoo. Why can’t that tiny fraction of a percent just go along and get along for the good of our nation, and use the bathroom that matches their anatomy? Don’t they owe some consideration to society and other people too? Looks like some bureaucrats in DC don’t have enough to do.
Sally,
I am confused? Did this not start from NC wanting to create a law to have bathroom police? Have not transgenders been using bathrooms way before NC wanted bathroom police? I agree this is blown way out of proportion, but advocating for bathroom police makes no sense.
Yep, John. I think it started in NC, and now the feds have picked it up, told every state what they MUST do to accommodate transgender folks. I sure don’t advocate bathroom police either, think everybody should just mind their own business. This whole thing looks like a solution hunting for a problem. Another election year concoction.
I agree!
Fed directives – guys in girls rooms – Urinal lobbyists – OSHA requirements – class action law suits – tax incentives for those that update – jobs – what’s not to like ?