For Valentine's Day - A Title IX Shift in Protective Love

Alliance Defending Freedom posted this update on Title IV today, Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2017: Over the weekend, the Trump administration showed signs that it was moving towards protecting student privacy in public schools. Here's what you need to know about that. Here's how The Wall Street Journal describes the sign: "Newly instated U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has shown an early sign of backing away from an Obama administration initiative that directs schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of the sex with which they identify.  The signal came in a Friday court filing from Justice Department lawyers withdrawing a request made last year by the Obama administration. That request came in response to a judge’s ruling in a lawsuit challenging federal guidance to states on accommodating transgender students." Here's the background: Last year, the Obama administration reinterpreted Title IX protections to include "gender identity," despite the federal law having been adopted explicitly to address inequities in education and sports based on biological sex. That led to a lawsuit filed in Texas to defend the privacy rights of students in public schools, which were placed in jeopardy. The federal government under the Obama administration, not surprisingly, defended its false reinterpretation until last week, when the new Trump administration dropped that defense in the Texas case. ADF Senior Counsel Gary McCaleb, Regent Law 1996, had this to say: "This is good news for the privacy, safety, and dignity of young students across America. The Obama Administration radically distorted a federal law that was intended to equalize educational opportunities for women and misused the law to place members of the opposite sex into students’ private facilities. Today, the Trump Administration took the first steps to end that error. It is only common sense to ensure privacy for all students by keeping boys out of girls' locker rooms and vice versa, and school officials shouldn’t have to fear losing crucial federal funding when they protect all students’ privacy. Respecting the real differences between boys and girls is right, because that protects the privacy, safety, and dignity of all students." It isn't clear at this point what this signals for cases regarding student privacy across the U.S., like the cases in Illinois and Virginia. We'll be certain to let you know how this impacts those cases, if it does.

To learn more see Trump drops Obama administration's transgender bathroom fight from the Catholic News Agency. 

Find out the truth about gender equality and authentic love - download A Christian Perspective on Gender Equality, 15 Duke J. Gender L. & Pol’y 339 (2008). Family restoration merits this positive, respectful, healthy perspective of love that balances gender, identity and protection.