Transsexual bathroom injunction only temporary

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Robert Pratt

Christopher Collins, writing for the Wichita Falls Times Record News, reported: “On Sunday, a federal judge in Ft. Worth awarded an injunction against the [Obama] administration to Texas and 14 other plaintiffs, ruling that they do not have to allow students to use the bathroom matching their gender identity if that identity does not correspond to their biological sex.”

Collins added that “The decision has far-reaching implications that could affect similar lawsuits and comes as a blow to equality activists and other groups who supported the implementation of new bathroom rules for transgender students.” He means transsexual students and because this is simply a trial court injunction, though with national scope, it is not a federal appellate court ruling and likely will have little influence on other related cases as other judges are free to rule in the opposite.

Even though the transsexual bathroom guidance from the Department of Education was only a suggestion and not binding upon public schools taking federal funding, Texas Attorney General Paxton filed suit immediately. Alabama, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah, Georgia, West Virginia, Mississippi and Kentucky joined Texas as did our own Harrold ISD in Wilbarger County; the Heber-Overgaard Unified School District in Arizona as well as that state’s Department of Education; and governor of Maine Paul LePage.

The DOE memo only implied the threat of losing Federal Government funding and the states acted preemptively. The injunction issued is temporary, it ordered:

Defendants are enjoined from enforcing the Guidelines against Plaintiffs and their respective schools, school boards, and other public, educationally-based institutions. Further, while this injunction remains in place, Defendants are enjoined from initiating, continuing, or concluding any investigation based on Defendant’ interpretation that the definition of sex includes gender identity in Title IX’s prohibition against discrimination on the basis of sex. Additionally, Defendants are enjoined from using the Guidelines or asserting the Guidelines carry weight in any litigation … All parties to this cause of action must maintain the status quo .. and this preliminary injunction will remain in effect until the Court rules on the merits of this claim, or until further direction from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The secular pop-culture wave on this issue is massive and court rulings alone will not dissipate its momentum. Like abortion, we must work to changes the hearts and minds of the public.

 

More good reporting on this is here.

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