President Donald Trump’s administration reversed a policy on transgender bathroom guidelines from the Obama era on Wednesday, causing a cascade of criticism and a wave of support from Floridians, elected officials and educators alike.
Obama instructed schools last May to allow students to enter the bathrooms of their chosen gender and threatened to keep funding from schools who did not comply with the order. On Wednesday, Trump’s administration rescinded those guidelines, saying the decision should instead rest with states and public schools to comply with the guidelines without any federal intervention.
Obama’s guidelines were already put on hold by a federal judge by the time Trump made the reversal.
Teachers groups nationwide lashed out against the decision, calling it an offense against transgender "protections" nationwide.
“Every student matters, and every student has the right to feel safe, welcomed, and valued in our public schools,” National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García said. “This is our legal, ethical and moral obligation. The Trump administration’s plans to reverse potections for transgender students by rescinding the Title IX guidance, is dangerous, ill-advised, and unnecessary.”
Other teacher groups said the ruling was particularly cruel for students in limbo between genders.
“Some kids don’t feel comfortable with a traditional gender identity. And it’s more common than you’d think,” wrote Sean Singer of the Badass Teachers Association. “These children have rights. They are little sweethearts. They’re full of life and joy. We should respect their humanity.”
Florida elected education officials disagreed, however, and said Trump’s decision was pivotal since it placed power back into local leaders’ hands.
“Oftentimes the argument from the left is that this is all about feelings and not about the facts,” Florida Coalition of School Board Members president Shawn Frost told Sunshine State News. “I read headlines that says [this] reverses protections, but it doesn’t change anything from bullying, etc. We have anti-bullying policies. As far as labeling and diving, that’s a tactic of the left.”
Frost has personal experience in working with transgender students since he taught one when he worked as a biology teacher in Sebastian.
Transgender bathroom issues have been a hot button in Florida politics in recent years. In 2015, Sen. Frank Artiles, R-Miami, filed a bill in the Florida House of Representatives which would have made it illegal for a person to enter a public bathroom facility of a single-sex bathroom if that person wasn’t born as that gender.
“A man such as myself can walk into the bathroom at LA Fitness while women are taking showers, changing, and simply walk in there,” Artiles said at the time. “Someone can say, ‘What are you doing there?’ Under the ordinance, I don’t have to respond. It’s subjective. If I feel like a woman that day, I can be allowed to be in that locker room. I don’t know about you, but I find that disturbing.”
Last year, the transgender bathroom issue former state Rep. Janet Adkins asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to weigh in on the transgender bathroom issue. Bondi never did.
Sunshine State News contacted the Florida Department of Education to discuss how it was handling the issue, but had not received a response at the time of this article's release.
Frost told SSN the responsibility rested with teachers and administrators to handle transgender issues in a positive way, calling the social aspect of the order a “strawman argument” since local districts have been dealing with the transgender issue for a long time.
“We have teachers who are compassionate. We have administrators who are compassionate,” he said. “They didn’t go into education for the big bucks. No reasonable person is going to argue against treating people with respect. ”
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
