Alabama politicians react to Obama administration’s new bathroom guidelines

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gender neutral restroom bathroom

President Barack Obama‘s Administration is telling every public school in the nation that they must allow students to use bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding to their gender identity rather than their biological sex.

The formal guidance comes in the form an eight-page joint directive. Released Friday afternoon by the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S Department of Education instructing school administrators that, when it comes to bathrooms and locker rooms, “A school may provide separate facilities on the basis of sex, but must allow transgender students access to such facilities consistent with their gender identity. A school may not require transgender students to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity or to use individual-user facilities when other students are not required to do so.”

Here’s how Alabama politicians are reacting to the guidelines:

Luther Strange headshotAlabama Attorney General Luther Strange:

The Obama Administration’s new guidance document is just one more example of the kind of federal overreach that we have come to expect from this White House. School bathroom use is an issue that should be decided by parents, teachers, and principals—not federal bureaucrats. The DOJ guidance document is also wrong on the law. Title IX allows schools to have separate facilities for separate sexes. The law says ‘sex,’ not gender identity. If the Obama Administration tries to enforce this absurd edict, I will work with other Attorneys General to challenge it.

Bradley Byrne Official fraudU.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne (AL-01):

I’ve been watching some of the reports on the Obama Administration’s new “bathroom guidance,” and I am pretty frustrated. Schools in Alabama or anywhere around the United States don’t need the federal government to dictate “bathroom policy” to them. Let’s get real here for a minute – this entire debate is executive overreach at its worst. Washington doesn’t always know best, and it has no business getting involved in a debate about where people go to the bathroom.

Martha Roby OfficialU.S. Rep. Martha Roby (AL-02):

They have lost their minds. This is a great example of an issue in which we need a lot less government and a lot more common sense. These are children. Eighth grade boys don’t need government-guaranteed access to the sixth grade girls’ bathroom, or vice versa.

Schools can figure out how to accommodate students’ unique needs on an individual basis without federal bureaucrats’ tortuous redefinition of sex. Moreover, threatening to sue schools or withhold funding if they don’t conform to this backward application of law is an abuse of power that won’t stand. I look forward to hearings that will expose how ridiculous and unworkable such a policy is.

Robert Aderholt OfficialU.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt (AL-04):

The U.S. Department of Education’s transgender directives just released reveal a new desperation by this administration to impose their liberal agenda on their way out the door. The Administration should not jeopardize the safety of our children in their efforts to force Americans to accept their LGBT political agenda.

Threatening to cut off funding to public schools, which are diligently working to educate our children, is nothing short of blackmail. We must continue to push back against this Administration’s almost constant attempt to circumnavigate Congress and the Constitution.

To that end, I will be joining several of my Congressional colleagues in signing a letter to the President, expressing great concern over these guidelines and reminding Mr. Obama that he cannot infringe upon the constitutional right of Congress to appropriate funds.

Gary Palmer OfficialU.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (AL-06):

This is yet another example of overreach by the Obama Administration. The guidance purports to create an environment that is “supportive” and “safe”. It will do neither. In fact, it will create an environment with much more potential for sexual misconduct and harm. No reasonable person could conclude that forcing school children, particularly adolescents, to share bathrooms and showers with individuals of the opposite sex, no matter how they might self-identify, is a smart idea. The safety implications for sexual predation have been well documented, but this Administration apparently has no concern about the sexual predators.

This guidance does not have the force of law and schools all over America should reject it. Alabama schools should reject it. The Obama Administration is engaging in an ideological war against our nation that not only is ripping our moral foundations apart, but now threatens our children’s safety and privacy. This action should cause all people of strong faith and moral convictions to come together across racial, religious and political lines to stop it. Members of Congress regardless of political affiliation who have the moral courage and conviction to do so, should stand to together and use every viable tool, including the power of the purse to stop the Administration from bullying states and local schools into adopting practices that the vast majority of Americans reject. This action should be seen for what it is, an act intended to force Americans to conform to the will of an increasingly extremist and provocative Administration.

Will AinsworthState Rep. Will Ainsworth

Like many of you, I am outraged and disgusted by the Obama administration’s threat to withdraw federal funding from states that do not allow so-called “transgender” students to use the bathroom, locker room, and shower facilities of their choosing. Alabama will not succumb to Obama’s extremist extortion.

Gender is not a choice. It is a fact that is determined by biology and by God, not by how masculine or feminine you feel when you wake up in the morning. Dressing like a pirate doesn’t make you a pirate, dressing like an astronaut doesn’t make you an astronaut, and dressing like the opposite sex doesn’t make you a man or a woman.

In the next legislative session, I will be introducing a law to block Barack Obama’s insane demand from being implemented in Alabama and in the interim call upon the State School Board to immediately promulgate a policy clearly requiring public school students to use the facilities that comply with their biological gender.

Our nation’s morals, our state’s values, and our children’s future are at stake, so we must take action now.

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