Michigan Board of Education Pushes Gender Confusion

By: American Decency Staff

If you follow American Decency on Facebook or get our email alerts, you've heard by now of the Michigan Board of Education's proposed guidance statement suggesting that public schools in Michigan allow boys and girls who "identify" as the opposite sex to use the bathrooms and locker rooms which have, in the past, been reserved for the opposite gender.

Peter Hasson at the Daily Caller has done an excellent job of updating this story, and with his writing as my source, I will use this space to sum up the events so far to ensure that we are all updated and informed.

On February 23rd, the school board sneakily released their guidance statement without the usual press conference which would announce such a policy change. The statement apparently stayed under the radar successfully until almost a month later, when the Daily Caller broke the story.

In case you don't know the details, the guidance statement amounts to a "suggestion" by the board of education on how each individual school in Michigan should handle the controversial issue of which locker room/bathroom transgender students ought to use. Michigan's Board of Education recommended not only the security nightmare of a policy already mentioned, but that schools allow students to make that decision – as well as changing their name and pronoun – without their parent's permission or even notification.

So a high school boy need only insist that he feels like a girl, and – if this guidance shapes any policy – that boy has an instant free pass to the girl's locker room.

The guidance was proposed on February 23 and the public was given until April 11 to comment on it before it is finalized. After the ensuing public outcry, the time for public comment was extended by 30 days.

There has been plenty of pushback on this issue; over 6,000 comments have been posted on the Department of Education's website,Michigan's state legislature stripped the Board of Education's travel and per-diem fundingfrom the budget bill, and State senator Tom Casperson of Escanaba, has announced plans to introduce a billprohibiting schools from following the guidance.

All of this is occurring in the context of North Carolina's recently passed legislation which overrules a Charlotte city ordinance allowing "transgender" men and women to use the opposite sex's public bathrooms. A state law was passed which prohibited this, and, in response, corporations like the NBA have put pressure on them to reverse it and San Francisco's mayor and New York's governor have announced boycotts for their city and state's travel. The ACLU has also filed a federal lawsuit against the state with accusations that it “particularly targets transgender men and women,” and, most ominously, the Obama administration is reportedly contemplating cutting off federal funding to North Carolina.

So, what can we do about this travesty?

1.     Add your comment to the Board of Education's website here,

2.      Click here to express concern to Michigan’s Board of Education with a prepared email.  This will be sent to each Board of Education member, the State Superintendent, and Governor Snyder.

3.     Sign our online petition here.

4.      Click here for a petition to print and share with others.  Circulate far and wide among friends, family, and your church.

5. Pray that our leaders will have the courage to withstand the pressure to cave in and betray the safety of our sons and daughters in the public school.

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