Posted on 11/24/2015 5:27:35 AM PST by wagglebee
MADISON, Wisconsin, November 23, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – A bill to stop transgender students from using restrooms and other facilities of the opposite sex faced a contentious, hours-long hearing on Thursday.
But a spokesperson for the bill's sponsor in the state Senate says it is designed to protect children, and that the bill accounts for the struggles of transgender teenagers. And a state activist told LifeSiteNews that "this bill is a reasonable response to a complex problem."
"It's clearly not an easy issue for public schools to deal with," said Julaine Appling of Wisconsin Family Action, who e-mailed LifeSiteNews during the hearing. "But to not address it means violating the privacy rights of students. All students have a right to privacy. Allowing biologic boys to use the girls' restroom and locker room and vice versa violates that right."
On the other side of the issue, Human Rights Campaign legal director Sarah Warbelow said in a statement that Nass's bill "belongs in the garbage" and that "AB 469 will place transgender and gender non-conforming students at risk for discrimination and harassment."
In his testimony at the hearing, bill sponsor Steve Nass described Assembly Bill 469 as "a simple proposal with common sense provisions that establish a statewide standard to balance the interests of a diverse population of students and parents."
The bill recognizes the sex of each student per what the child's stated anatomy is at birth, on a birth certificate, and "Insures that the privacy interests of students in all corners of the state are treated equally by prohibiting females from using changing rooms designated for males and males from using the changing rooms of females," said Nass.
If a student "identifies as a member of the opposite sex" and a parent makes a request to use a different restroom or changing room, the bill "protects the ability of parents and students to seek reasonable accommodations from school boards for the use of single occupancy changing rooms by a student[.]"
Parents may file a complaint with their school's board if a school does not comply with these regulations.
According to Nass, his bill is "necessary to counter some of the existing school district policies that unfairly prioritize the wishes of transgender students and their parents over the privacy concerns of other students and their parents." A number of schools have independently decided to "to promote the interests of transgender students in granting full access to the changing rooms of the opposite sex," said Nass, who pointed to how "some public school officials will claim their local policies prioritizing the interests of transgender students are mandated by federal law."
The claims of federal mandates come from the Obama administration, which in 2014 created a new definition of sex discrimination under the 1972 Title IX. The administration has threatened to pull funding from schools that don't capitulate to transgender activists on opposite-sex restroom access.
The administration has involved itself in the Wisconsin case, filing a friend of the court brief restating its position. However, in a letter to officials in Palatine, Illinois – who are under the same attack from the Obama administration – leading conservative lawyers for the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Thomas More Society argued that the administration's interpretation of Title IX has no legal basis.
In June, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorney Jeremy Tedesco told LifeSiteNews the same thing. "A federal court in Pennsylvania recently rejected a similar lawsuit filed by a transgender student seeking access to restrooms at a college," said Tedesco, "ruling that 'separating students by sex based on biological considerations … for restroom and locker room use simply does not violate the Equal Protection Clause.'"
"The court rejected the Title IX claim for the same reason. It also highlighted that Title IX’s implementing regulations state that schools do not violate Title IX when they 'provide separate toilet, locker room, and shower facilities on the basis of sex.'"
"Every court to consider this issue has held that single-sex restrooms and locker room facilities are permitted under Title IX," said Tedesco.
The ADF attorney also said that the change to Title IX "is not legally binding" and was "politically motivated."
Nass said his bill is necessary to protect "bodily privacy" across the state. "I am certain you will hear arguments opposed to AB 469 based on local control and the need to let school boards decide policies in each district based on community values," he told the Education Committee. "How is it that a student in Superior or Dodgeville or New Berlin or Green Bay can have a differing right to bodily privacy? This legislature has repeatedly recognized the right of bodily privacy for adults and children with the passage of statutes in recent years relating to upskirting, the unauthorized use of nude or partially nude pictures on social media, and the prohibition on the use of cell phones with cameras in school locker rooms."
Nass's chief of staff, Mike Mikalsen, told LifeSiteNews that the senator's goal with Assembly Bill 469 is to protect student rights to privacy – which Nass cited in his testimony – but also the right to avoid sexual harassment and to keep students out of the political aspects of the transgender "rights" fight.
"Under some of our school districts' policies, those parents and those students [who complain about use of opposite-sex bathrooms] would be asked to meet with a counselor so it could be explained to them why their position is wrong," said Mikalsen. He also said that children who complain, or children of parents who complain, are sometimes told to use a unisex bathroom as punishment for speaking up.
"It does have the impact of sending a message: If you open your mouth and complain, these policies can be [inaudible] against your kid."
"In no other area of school law do you allow the students to run the ship," said Mikalsen, noting that school administrators and boards typically make policies – but "in this case, you literally can have a transgender student ... come in and tell a school board, 'I don't care what you want. I'm telling you, this is how you're going to run your district.'"
Nass also said that small numbers of students are likely to abuse the ability to use opposite-sex facilities, something the bill is designed to prevent.
The fact that this is controversial at all tells you just how far we’ve progressed down the rabbit hole.
NO real man would countenance this nonsense for a minute.
The sex positive agenda marches on. It’s about conditioning the children to ACCEPT this worldview even if no students are personally affected.
It used to be called corrupting a minor and sexual deviant behavior.
I find it interesting that the more liberalism takes over society, the more confused people there are.
All it takes is one anonymous, cowardly person to file a complaint and a cross is going to come down, prayers will be silenced and our flag will be put away.
Enough.
He would have succeeded had he been committed enough to shave his legs or smart enough to wear a longer dress.
Poor guy was just born a few decades too early. It sucks to man born ahead of his time.
Just a thought, if a teen age high school man can dress up as woman and seriously be considered a woman able to enter the woman's rest room and locker room , would it be that great of a stretch for a middle age man to wear a dress and be considered a teen age high school student woman eligible to enter the woman's rest rooms and locker room .
Not much of a stretch since I know a lot of middle age guys acting like teen age high schoolers and showing definite signs of high school maturity levels
That concept definitely has possibilities, and will probably be the next step in the evolution of the concept - much the same way the Gay Mafia immediately begun pushing for “Transgender Rights” the moment it won on Gay rights and the way it's laying the ground work getting ready to move to the goal posts one more time and push pedophilia and the mainstreaming of child molestation as soon as it wins the Transgender war.
liberalism may be the reason they are “gender confused”. Don’t remember this ever being an issue back in the day when I went to school.....weird.
I would tend to agree with you.
its a distraction. Probably pulling a fast one on some other issue while everyone's attention is dfiverted.
“All it takes is one anonymous, cowardly person to file a complaint and a cross is going to come down, prayers will be silenced and our flag will be put away.”
It only takes one complaint if it fits their predetermined agenda. Try complaining about gay pride celebrations and see how far you get.
I blame all of the leftist transgender bs on modern conveniences. People have too much time on their hands to dote on such idiocy. Before modern conveniences people were just trying to survive. Maybe if ISIS bombed the crap out of a few liberal cities they might get scared straight when they had to wonder if there WAS a bathroom left to piss in.
” STOP SENDING YOUR EDUCATION MONEY TO WASHINGTON........KEEP IT IN YOUR STATE TO FUND YOUR OWN SCHOOLS!”
Huh? How do you propose states/people stop sending ED money to DC? The money is extracted before you ever see it.
If you want to be truly merciful and understanding, explain that it really isn't going to get any better, and give them a pistol with a round in the chamber...
Every collection space is a one-holer. Easy.
My bill would state that boys who think they’re girls, and girls who think they are boys are banned from public school. Furthermore, they are banned from every buying a firearm because they are mentally ill and mentally ill people shouldn’t own guns.
Maybe I am mistaken, but I thought our Education Tax dollars were part of our State’s income tax. And the States have to proactively send that money to DC and DC sends it back. Like money laundering. Wrong?
Nope, it is sent to DC with your Fed income tax.
Tomorrow at lunchtime, invite all the construction crews working near the Capitol to “wash up” in the women’s restrooms located in the Wisconsin Capitol building and all of the nearby ‘trendy’ restaurants where the legislators & staff go to dine.
See if that changes the perspective of these supporters of “boys-using-girls-restrooms”.
This is from a PBS article by Judy Woodruff. It is old, 2008 old, but I didn’t find anything newer to explain. This is the info that I was discussing. Will add another link to exp;lain, too.
‘So where does the bulk of the money for our 14,000 public elementary and secondary school districts schools come from? State and local governments. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, state and local funding accounts for approximately 93 percent of education expenditures.
What’s the source of these funds? In most states, it’s sales and income taxes (both corporate and personal). But on a local level, these funds usually come from property taxes, which are set by the school board, local officials or citizens. It’s this system that causes the most dramatic differences between states, and even within districts.’
http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/index.html?exp
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