Most Berks state reps scold Obama over transgender bathroom letter

by Steve Reinbrecht

Five of the nine state representatives who represent Berks County signed a letter directly to President Obama opposing his administration’s directive to public schools to accommodate transgender students. 

Why do conservative lawmakers get so wigged out about anything to do with sex?

The letter, signed by 96 of the 203 Pennsylvania state representatives, plays to fear in a way that reminds me of the Republican push to require identification cards to vote. Just as voter fraud is practically non-existent, attacks by creeps posing as transgender people in public bathrooms are unlikely.

The lawmakers are pandering to fear of sexual deviancy to target a tiny, vulnerable population, perhaps 3 people out of 1,000, or maybe 1,200 Berks County residents – but certainly some students in every school district.

The White House can be accused of overreach for its letter, because most school districts are quietly and appropriately accommodating transgender students, defined in Obama’s letter as individuals whose gender identity is different from the sex they were assigned at birth.

In a Reading Eagle article, local school officials appear to be working on the issue with the best interests of the students in mind.

"This is a real concern about real people," Reading School Board President Robin Costenbader-Jacobson said. "We have more than 17,000 students, and we want what's best for every single one of them. We want to be sensitive to every person and not sitting in a seat of judgment."

As she notes, the issue is truly one of compassion. Any parent can imagine the struggles of a young person who realizes ze is gay or feels like ze is in the wrong body.

But the tone of the lawmakers’ letter is one of persecution, linking transgender people to perverts.

“We are writing to express our extreme outrage at the legally spurious ‘Dear Colleague’ letter issued jointly by the Department of Education and the Department of Justice on Friday, May 13, 2016 regarding the use of bathrooms by transgender students in public schools,” says the lawmakers' letter.

“Plainly, this directive will allow men to go into legally sex-separated bathrooms with young girls. The parents of these young girls are rightly concerned about your policy and its implications for their daughters’ safety.”

I don’t see that happening in any properly run public school.

And believe me, America is the most uptight country I’ve ever visited about bathroom purity. These letter signers probably wouldn't be able to go in some of the public restrooms I've used in Japan, Brazil, Paris, the Bahamas....