By
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The chairmen
of two U.S. bishops’ committees Feb. 24 praised President Donald Trump’s repeal
of the Obama administration’s directive on transgender access to bathrooms.
The guidance, issued last May by
the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education, “indicated
that public pre-K through 12 schools, as well as all colleges and universities,
should treat ‘a student’s gender identity as the student’s sex,'” said the bishops’
joint statement.
The document “sought to impose a
one-size-fits-all approach to dealing with sensitive issues involving
individual students,” said Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia,
chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity,
Marriage, Family Life and Youth, and Bishop George V. Murry of Youngstown, Ohio,
chairman of the USCCB Committee on Catholic Education.
“Such issues are best handled
with care and compassion at the local level, respecting the privacy and safety
concerns of all students,” they said.
In rescinding the directive, the
Trump administration said that addressing of transgender access to bathrooms is
best left to the states and local school districts, not the federal government.
The Obama administration said it
applied to all public schools as well as colleges and universities that
received federal funding. The directive “summarizes a school’s Title IX
obligations regarding transgender students,” administration officials said,
and that it also explained how the Education and Justice departments will
“evaluate a school’s compliance with these obligations.”
The federal Title IX statute
prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs and activities, like
sports. Some months before issuing the directive, Obama administration had
warned schools that denying transgender students access to the facilities and
activities of their choice was illegal under its interpretation of federal sex
discrimination laws.
Officials at the Justice and
Education departments in the Trump administration rejected the previous administration’s
position that nondiscrimination laws require schools to allow transgender
students to use the bathrooms of their choice.
That directive, they said, was
arbitrary and devised “without due regard for the primary role of the states
and local school districts in establishing educational policy.”
“Pope Francis has taught that ‘biological
sex and the sociocultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not
separated,” said Archbishop Chaput and Bishop Murry, quoting from “Amoris
Laetitia,” the papal document on marriage and family.
“The Catholic Church
consistently affirms the inherent dignity of each and every human person and
advocates for the well-being of all people, particularly the most vulnerable,”
the two prelates said. “Children, youth and parents in these difficult
situations deserve compassion sensitivity, and respect. All of these can be
expressed without infringing on legitimate concerns about privacy and security
on the part of all young students and parents.”
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