Texas school boards are being pressured to adopt policies giving transgender students the right to use preferred pronouns, school bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers, according to conservatives who feel schools are stepping on parental rights.
The Texas American Civil Liberties Union presented a “best practices” program on transgender student legal issues based on Biden’s Department of Education interpretation during a convention on Sept. 24 in San Antonio.
The Texas Association of School Administrators and Texas Association of School Boards 2022 convention included speakers and training for Texas school officials. The ACLU, a liberal civil rights group, titled their program: “Transgender Students in Texas Schools: What You Need to Know.”
ACLU attorneys gave a presentation at the convention that included transgender students speaking directly to officials on “challenges” in schools with restrooms, sports, dress codes, pronouns, and bullying.
David Hamilton, a board member at Fort Bend Independent School Board who attended the ACLU presentation, posted on Twitter that the union was “trying to force Texas public schools to allow boys in girls’ locker rooms, showers, restrooms, and athletics.”
“They had a biological girl who IDs as a boy speak because that appeals better,” his post continued.
When contacted by The Epoch Times, Hamilton said he viewed the ACLU presentation as a warning that schools must accommodate transgender student rights or face lawsuits from it or other liberal groups.
The ACLU did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Texas state Rep. Steve Toth (R-Woodlands) agreed there was a concerted effort to push schools to accept the Biden administrations’ interpretation of Title IX as law. But part of the problem lies with the trustees who don’t question what they’re told, he said.
“There’s no way this isn’t coordinated,” he said. “We’re hearing this in all 50 states.”
“If they put this into place, they’re violating the law,” said Toth, who intends to introduce legislation in 2023 to protect students from sexualization at school.
Title IX, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, now permits students to use restrooms, locker rooms, and compete on sports teams based on their gender identity instead of their biological sex.
Biden issued an executive order after a June 2020 landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that expanded the legal definition of sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity in employment situations.
The Department of Education and EEOC issued “guidance” in June 2021 prohibiting such discrimination and promising enforcement action against violators, including the loss of federal funding for schools.
However, the Biden administration’s push to enforcing the executive order designed to protect the LGBT community from discrimination in schools and the workplace was blocked by a Tennessee federal judge in July, while a legal challenge launched by 22 attorneys general, including Texas, is making its way through the court system.
via zerohedge