Texas superintendent declares ‘Obama is not my President’ after advice to respect trans students
A Texas superintendent has responded strongly to the Obama administration’s advice to be inclusive of trans students – by rejecting him as President.
A letter of guidance sent from the Obama administration today, says schools should allow students to use a bathroom consistent with their gender identity.
According to the letter, in order to receive federal funds, “a school may provide separate facilities on the basis of sex, but must allow transgender students access to such facilities consistent with their gender identity.”
The letter went on to clarify that while schools could provide single-use bathrooms to provide extra privacy, it could not segregate students to insist that trans students use only the single use facilities.
The letter also quotes Title IX, saying that students should not be required to provide medical proof to a school, or documentation reflecting change of gender.
Rodney Cavness is the superintendent of Port Neches-Groves Schools in Texas.
He responded to the administration’s request by saying: “I got news for President Barack Obama.”
Cavness added: “He ain’t my president and he can’t tell me what to do. That letter is going straight to the paper shredder.”
Running counter to the argument used by many opponents to trans-inclusion that trans people will use gender-appropriate bathrooms to molest people, Caveness did admit that this is unlikely the outcome of allowing people to pee in a gender-appropriate loo.
“I would say about molesters — 99.9 percent certainly aren’t,” Cavness added.
The father of five is in charge of protecting around 5,000 students in the school district.
But he instead decided to take aim at the President, ahem, to all other Americans, who we are sure really cares what he thinks.
“Now I don’t want them bullied, but there are accommodations that can be made short of this,” Cavness continued.
“He is destroying the very fibre of this country. He is not a leader. He is a failure,” he added.
His words were supported by Greg Abbott, the state’s Governor, who also said he would fight against the Obama administration’s request.
A battle is currently being waged over trans bathroom rights, as North Carolina is being sued by the federal government over HB2.
HB2 was passed in response to a local ordinance in Charlotte protecting the rights of trans students who use a gender-appropriate bathroom.
The state law, passed in a special session, bans trans people from using a gender-appropriate bathrooms and rolls back local laws protecting LGBT people.
The Governor of North Carolina Pat McCrory has said HB2 is a “common sense privacy policy”, and also suggested Congress should review the Civil Rights Act following the action against hist state.
McCrory’s administration countersued on Monday, filing a complaint against the federal government.
He said the Justice Department’s lawsuit against the state was a “baseless and blatant overreach.”
The US Justice Department sued the state of North Carolina on Monday, asking a federal court to rule that the law violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The Department said the state should stop enforcing HB2.
The Attorney General Loretta Lynch also threatened to withhold federal funding to the University of North Carolina system, which could be as much as $4.8 billion.
In response, Governor McCrory filed his own desperate lawsuit against the federal government yesterday.
In it, he named Ms Lynch, the head of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, Vanita Gupta and the Justice Department.
“We’re taking the Obama admin to court,” he wrote.
