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Schimel Joins Lawsuit Challenging Obama Transgender Policy
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | May 26, 2016
From WisPolitics:
Republican AG Brad Schimel’s decision to join a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s new bathroom policy for transgender people is drawing responses from across the political spectrum.
And both sides said their main goal is to protect children in Wisconsin.
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan said Schimel’s decision is no surprise considering Gov. Scott Walker’s “backwards approach to governing the state.” The Madison-area Dem said the state, instead of fighting the policy, should seek ways to make schools safe for the most vulnerable students.
“It’s a poor and pitiful attempt to catch a dying wave of shameful political attacks on transgender youth,”Pocan said, “in an effort to advance an antiquated ideology.”
On the other side, Rep. Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum, and Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, sent out an “open letter to Wisconsin’s parents and children” on the issue. The lawmakers were behind the “Student Privacy Protection Act,” which would have established rules for the bathrooms transgender students can use; it failed to become law in the past session.
“The Wisconsin Legislature will take a stand against the bullying and intimidation tactics of the federal government,” according to the letter, “ensuring that state and local rights are maintained by making the privacy and safety of Wisconsin students of utmost importance.”
The Obama administration, earlier this month, established a Title IX policy that lets public school students use the bathrooms that match their gender identities. The policy forces all recipients of Title IX money to treat people according to their “internal sense of gender.”
Wisconsin and 10 other states, led by Texas, sued yesterday. Schimel argued the policy conflicts with the language of Title IX and state law, which prohibits discrimination based on “sex” but not gender identity.
The policy also sacrifices “the privacy and safety of the nation’s children,” said Julaine Appling, president of Wisconsin Family Action. The group has joined more than 30 other state-level organizations in sending a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, and other congressional leaders urging them to take legislative action to stop the policy.
“Real students at every grade level will be affected by the policies this mandate forces on our schools,” Appling said.
But the policy is really about equality for the LGBT community and the requirement that states follow federal law, Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa said. The Milwaukee Dem said Republicans have “sunk to a new low in their attacks on LGBT people.”
“I’m more than disappointed that Attorney General Schimel, the top law enforcement official in the state, who we’re supposed to be able to look to for protection, instead chose to use his power to protect bigotry,” Zamarripa said.
See Pocan’s news release.
See the open letter from Kremer and Nass.
See the Wisconsin Family Action news release.
See Zamarripa’s news release.
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