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Transmissions: What's at Stake

By Gwendolyn Ann Smith

Election season is upon us, and the primaries are in full swing. In just a few months we'll be offered the choice of two candidates — and a number of unlikely third-party options — and select one of them to be at the helm of our country for at least the next four years.
Now I have to admit, I've liked the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. We've see transgender rights expand greatly under President Obama, from including transgender protections in housing and employment, revamping passport policies, including transgender needs within the Affordable Care Act, and even being the first president to say "transgender" in the State of the Union.
Arguably, one of the biggest — and most controversial — policy changes has come under Title IX, which has banned gender discrimination in education since its enactment in 1972. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Education determined that the gender protections of Title IX also cover transgender students.
With this ruling, Title IX not only protects students from anti-trans bullying, but also means that transgender students are to be afforded the same rights as other members of their chosen gender — including, yes, in restrooms and locker rooms.
This ruling — as well as state and local actions in-line with the federal law — is at the heart of dozens of anti-transgender bills across the country. A report from the Human Rights Campaign had pointed to a total of 44 such bills across 16 states. That's twice what we saw in all of 2015, and the year is still quite young.
Anti-marriage foes, still stinging from the loss, have latched onto transgender bathroom access as their next big battle. The repeal of HERO in Houston, Texas as well as the passage of an anti-transgender bathroom bill in South Dakota — currently on Gov. Daugaard's desk awaiting his possible signature — have only bolstered these forces.
I should add, by the way, that the South Dakota bill — HB 1008 — already has a rather insidious follow-up bill. HB 1209 would have made the birth certificate of a person the sole allowed identity paperwork for licensing, school registration, and even for kids to be part of gender-appropriate sports programs. Thankfully, this bill was tabled, though a number of other follow-up bills remain on the table in the Mount Rushmore State.
If you wondered how these battles would tie into the race for the White House this year, you need only to look so far as a policy resolution released this February by the Republican National Committee. You can find the whole thing online at https://goo.gl/IHdC7z.
The policy resolution starts simply enough, stating, "WHEREAS, A person's sex is defined as the physical condition of being male or female, which is determined at conception, identified at birth by a person's anatomy, recorded on their official birth certificate, and can be confirmed by DNA testing." This statement falls apart the very moment that DNA testing is brought up. Such is not as conclusive as the RNC might hope, nor is one's birth anatomy.
Meanwhile, does the mention of the birth certificate in this remind one of the attempt in South Dakota to make the birth certificate the final arbiter of one's gender?
After the above statement and several others challenging the ruling on Title IX provided by the Department of Education — as well as making sure to name-check both President Obama as well as former Secretary of State and current Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton — the RNC makes the following three-point resolution:
"RESOLVED, The Republican National Committee calls on the Department of Education to rescind its interpretation of Title IX that wrongly includes facility use issues by transgender students;
"RESOLVED, The Republican National Committee encourages state Legislatures to recognize that these Obama gender identity policies are a federal governmental overreach, a misinterpretation of Title IX policies and an infringement upon the majority of students' Constitutional rights; and
"RESOLVED, The Republican National Committee encourages state Legislatures to enact laws that protect student privacy and limit the use of restrooms, locker rooms and similar facilities to members of the sex to whom the facility is designated."
Their argument is the same one we've heard before. It's all about safety, of course, because creeps will simply use these protections to invade the privacy of students. Setting aside how much this policy itself invades the policy of transgender students who simply need a safe place to go to a restroom that is congruent with their own gender identity. Likewise, ignoring that this Title IX ruling does not strip away any allowance for facilities to be separated by gender.
Let this sink in. This is the Republican National Committee and their official statement on "governmental overreach" on Title IX policies. This is a statement that every GOP politician — including presumably those currently running for the presidency — will accept as gospel.
In short, one of the two major political parties in this country has just said that transgender people do not deserve the same rights as those who are non-transgender, and should not be afforded basic, equal public accommodations.
This is what's at stake this election for transgender people. We have indeed been fortunate to see a presidency that has, by and large, been very positive for transgender people — and certainly a lot better than a McCain or Romney presidency may have been.
This can change in an instant, especially if some of the current possible GOP contenders make it into the Oval Office. I implore you to think of this when you cast your ballot — and please do not stay home this November.

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