Obama Defends Transgender Directive for School Bathrooms
|
Version 0 of 1. WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday made an impassioned argument for his administration’s decision to instruct public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity, saying that society must protect the dignity and safety of vulnerable children. The remarks were the president’s first public comments on a directive released Friday that has added fuel to a searing national debate over transgender rights. Mr. Obama said the guidance, issued by the Education and Justice Departments, represented “our best judgment” on how to help schools wrestling with the issue. “We’re talking about kids, and anybody who’s been in school, been in high school, who’s been a parent, I think should realize that kids who are sometimes in the minority — kids who have a different sexual orientation or are transgender — are subject to a lot of bullying, potentially they are vulnerable,” Mr. Obama said in an interview with BuzzFeed News. “I think that it is part of our obligation as a society to make sure that everybody is treated fairly, and our kids are all loved, and that they’re protected and that their dignity is affirmed.” The White House has said little about Mr. Obama’s role in the release of the guidance, which had been under development for months, other than to say that he had been kept apprised of its progress and that it was broadly consistent with his values. It has drawn condemnations from many Republican lawmakers who call it an example of presidential overreach. Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, said on Monday that the guidance violated the principle of separation of powers, and state officials there have signaled that they will seek to challenge it in court. “The president is turning the Constitution on its head,” Mr. Abbott told Fox News. “He’s trying to cram down as many parts of his liberal agenda on the United States of America as he possibly can” before leaving office in January. The clash comes as the Obama administration is battling North Carolina over a law that says transgender people must use restrooms and changing facilities that correspond to their sex at birth. The Justice Department sued the state this month, arguing that the law is discriminatory. “There’s no denying that there has been a significant uptick in public consideration of these kinds of questions” because of North Carolina’s measure, Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said on Monday, before the president’s comments were published online. “The White House was not just aware of these policy deliberations but in the loop as the decisions were being made to ensure that the guidance reflected the president’s values and the president’s preferences,” he added. Mr. Obama said he would not comment on the North Carolina suit, to avoid intervening in a pending case. But he said that he expected the courts to eventually resolve the issue of how schools should treat transgender students, and that, in the meantime, his administration wanted to respond to inquiries from schools on how to proceed. “We said, ‘It is our view that you should try to treat these kids with dignity,’ ” Mr. Obama said, adding that the administration had sought to help educators and administrators by including a set of “best practices” from school districts that have enacted similar transgender policies. “There are school districts who have been wrestling with this problem and have, we think, done a good job in accommodating them in a way that is good for everybody, and so you can learn from these best practices. This is what we are advising.” But the directive represents more than just a suggestion. While it does not carry the force of law, it signals how the administration interprets federal statutes, bringing with it an implied threat that schools that act otherwise could lose federal funding. “Ultimately, depending on how these other lawsuits go, courts will affirm or reject how we see the issue,” Mr. Obama said. |