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Friday, May 13, 2016

It's Official -- The Key Is Identification

Here is the key point in the new guidance sent by the federal government to school districts across America:  The federal government now says that for any student whose family notifies the district that he or she identifies with a different sex, the school district must "allow students to participate in sex-segregated activities and access sex-segregated facilities consistent with their gender identity."  The feds justify this position as one supposedly required by existing federal laws.  The feds also say that a district may take steps to allow additional privacy if that is feasible.

Think about that.  The rule applies to much more than just bathrooms.  It requires that locker rooms be shared.  It requires that showers be shared.  It requires that sports teams be shared as well.  If the girls' locker room at the local high school does not have separate stall showers, then the girls will have to shower with their classmate, a guy who says he now identifies as a woman.  If there's a guy who cannot quite make the men's basketball team, he can join the women's basketball team if he announces that he identifies as a woman.  There are, of course, also the bathrooms.

This is a crazy position for the federal government to take.  It is also one that is way beyond the scope of the existing law.  Federal law prohibits discrimination based upon sex.  It does not prohibit discrimination based upon self selected sex.  Congress clearly never even considered this issue and certainly never intended that transgendered students get special rights like this.

But let's assume that the letter actually is correct.  A physically male student who now identifies as a female must be treated as a female even though nothing changed with his body.  What about a student who identifies as older; how is he or she affected.  Can a boy of 16 who identifies as older buy cigarettes or beer that would normally be sold only to those over 18 or 21?  Can teens who identify as older register to vote before they are actually 18?  After all, Congress also banned discrimination based upon age.  Why doesn't self identified age get considered.

Then there are the Rachel Dolezals of the world.  Dolezal is the white woman who identified as black and led the local NAACP.  If Dolezal identifies as black, does the law now consider her black?  Can she have her children claim scholarships set aside for blacks?  Remember, this group includes people like senator Elizabeth Warren.  She claimed to be part Native American even though that was false.  But if Warren identified as part Native American, does that mean that she is entitled to all the programs run by the government to aid Native Americans?  Can anyone now get access to government programs just based upon self-identification?

What's next?  Can people self identify as a veteran and get access to Veterans' Hospitals?  Can someone who never held a job identify as a worker and collect Social Security?  Can illegal aliens identify as Americans and claim all the rights of citizens? 

The real question is this:  Can president Obama and Hillary Clinton suddenly identify as sane people and force the rest of us to ignore just how crazy they and their positions truly are?

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