Sexual-equality laws passed 32 years ago actually provide legal protections to people who want to live as members of the opposite sex, according to a new Tuesday claim by the Department of Education.
The announcement is a victory for the political advocates who want to stigmatize and penalize Americans’ common-sense recognition of the different preferences of most males and females.
Federal “sex discrimination prohibition extends to claims of discrimination based on gender identity or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity and [the Department’s Office of Civil Rights] accepts such complaints for investigation,” said the claim.
“Gender identity” is the buzzword for the ideological claim that people can declare themselves to be legally male or female, regardless of their genetic code or the sex of their sexual organs.
The new rules for people in the education sector were issued even through transgender people comprise a tiny slice of society. For example, advocates claim up to two percent of Americans wish to live as people of the opposite sex. Other advocates estimate that 0.003 percent of men and 0.0001 percent of women undergo sex-change operations.
The attempted creation of new lawsuit rights for transgender people was lauded by the American Civil Liberties Union. The department’s “guidance is crystal clear and leaves no room for uncertainty on the part of schools regarding their legal obligation to protect transgender students from discrimination,” claimed Ian Thompson, a staffer for the ACLU.
But it’s not enough, he said. “The Office for Civil Rights must now take the next step and issue comprehensive guidance on Title IX and transgender students,” he declared.
The guidance will allow commercial and political lawyers to threaten lawsuits against colleges if they don’t begin curbing or blocking the normal recognition of average male and female preferences, or fail to promote alternatives to the evolved expectations.
These customary recognitions include separate bathrooms and showers for men and women or boys and girls, the use of words such as “his” or “hers,” or the recognition in advertising, hiring and awards of the traditional ideals of female and male beauty or accomplishment.
The new push to block recognition of sex-related ideals in law and society is opposed by social conservatives, who say those ideals help young men and women make the best use of their normal talents and preferences.
Conservatives argue that post-1960s attacks on traditional ideals about sexual behavior has harmed poor people, especially once government aid for children was disconnected from the ideal of marriage. Since the 1960s, the number of children raised by unmarried parents has spiked, sharply increasing the number of ill-educated and poor people who depend on government services.
Progressives, however, champion the government’s enforced creation of “diversity,” and claim that the evolved ideals for males and females are archaic, counterproductive and limit individuals’ freedom.
This anti-gender campaign is making progress, partly because political groups are threatening companies with lawsuits.
Last December, for example, McDonald’s announced that it would refuse to recognize the existing differences between boys and girls when preparing plastic toys that are distributed with “Happy Meals.”
“It is McDonald’s intention and goal that each customer who desires a Happy Meal toy be provided the toy or his or her choice, without any classification of the toy as a ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ toy,” according to a December 2013 statement by the company’s chief diversity officer, Patricia Harris.