Obama's transgender student directive inflames culture wars https://t.co/8vdddsa0Em | Getty pic.twitter.com/KU7APJCw9v
— POLITICO (@politico) May 15, 2016
While the Obama administration’s directive on bathroom access for transgender students was praised by supporters as a historic moment for civil rights, the sweeping new rules have re-energized the right — and a top lawmaker in Texas even argues that Donald Trump can use the issue as a springboard to the White House. The right has been consistently losing culture-war fights in the courts during the Obama era, most significantly in the Supreme Court case last year that legalized gay marriage. Now, conservative governors, state officials, education advocates and parent groups have extra motivation to unify in their revolt against a federal intervention directed by a president they loathe that will affect every public school in the nation.
Perhaps the aspect of this invented “controversy” I find most ridiculous and offensive is the idea that all viewpoints are equal and must be given equal weight. After all, we can’t discriminate against someone simply because we disagree with them…right? We must be fair and provide all opinions with equal respect and consideration, lest we be accused of being bullies.
To this point of view I have but one response: Bullshit. In fact, the delusion requiring us to treat all viewpoints equally is in and of itself highly problematical. I believe there are times when society should- nay, must- stand up and draw a line in the sand. The belief that the ideas put forward by those who trade in hatred, bigotry, and exclusion are as valid and worthy as others is as dangerous as the ideas, because it ignores the essential tyranny behind them.
The idea that the Obama Administration’s edict requiring schools receiving federal funds to allow students to use the bathroom corresponding to the gender they identify as is most certainly NOT “inflaming the culture wars.” All the federal government is doing is requiring that ALL students be treated with a basic minimum of fairness and dignity. What’s “inflaming the culture wars” are the demagogues who’ve determined that this manufactured “controversy” presents them with a golden opportunity to enhance their political brand.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is the poster child for a class of Right-wing demagogues and culture warriors who’ve determined that “protecting the sanctity of public restrooms” is an appropriate and right cause celbre to rally the sheeple around.
“I believe it is the biggest issue facing families and schools in America since prayer was taken out of public schools,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick declared Friday, mere hours after the Obama administration’s letter was released.
First of all, prayer was never “taken out of public schools.” There’s no way to stop students, faculty, and administrators from engaging in prayer. What was proscribed was the requirement that students- some of whom aren’t necessarily Christian- engage in Christian prayer. The separation of Church and state- which actually is a thing despite the refusal of culture warriors to acknowledge the truth- means public schools can’t be treated as publicly-funded extensions of Christian churches. Public schools are for education, not religious indoctrination. If parents want their children to pray…well, that’s what home and churches are for. Public education should not and must not be required to pressure students into following the dictates of the majority religion.
Second, if you consider “protecting the sanctity” of public potties to be an “issue,” I’d submit you have issues far more significant and intractable than I can get into here. Truthfully, it’s not the children we should be concerned about; it’s the adults and their various moral/ideological/theological hangups…which they believe they should be able to pass to their children.
A fair and moral society can’t refer to itself as such if it feels compelled to treat all ideas with equal fairness and consideration. There comes a time when we MUST make it clear to those who deal in fear, hatred, and bigotry that they can’t presume the right to force all of us to adhere to their moral/ideological/theological agenda. If they object to the Obama Administration’s edict, if they feel their morality is ipso facto the One, True, and ONLY yardstick, they’re free to homeschool their children or send them to a private school.
When we agree to treat all ideas equally, we allow for those who wish to enforce their agenda upon wider society to argue that their moral/ideological/theological framework is a valid choice. It may be valid in the context of their own lives, but zealotry doesn’t imbue a narrow authoritarian agenda with any applicability to society as a whole.
When you get down to basics, the belief in absolute fairness really is a recipe for absolute tyranny. Then again, it’s only tyranny when others are doing it to you. When you’re the one making the rules, you’re merely setting a minimum standard of morality- YOUR morality.
