THANK GOD FOR PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

     After reading the commentary below, please express your own thoughts.  Instructions on how to do so are written at the bottom of this column.  Thank you.

     Applause, applause, applause...kudos, admiration and respect for President Obama for his "guidance" to educators on the question of where a transgender student should go to the bathroom.  In conveying the President's advice on Friday, May 13th, 2016...the federal government says that school districts, colleges and universities...that receive funding from Uncle Sam...must allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms based on their gender identity...not according to the sex noted on their birth certificates.

     The text of a joint letter from the Departments of Education and Justice says that "a school must not treat a transgender student differently from the way it treats other students of the same gender identity."  Although the directive does not impose legal requirements...the Obama Administration has emphasized - what I would call...a word to the wise - that if The White House learns of a school that discriminates against a transgender boy or girl...it may find itself losing federal funding.

     Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick calls President Obama's actions "blackmail."  I think anyone who agrees with Patrick needs to give serious thought to how they would feel if someone was prejudiced against them.

     What makes the United States of America the greatest country in the world?  First and foremost...is freedom.  Freedom for all people who call our land home.

     When President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863, it freed most, but not all of the Negro slaves.  The Thirteenth Amendment completely abolished slavery when Congress passed it two years later and it was ratified by the States on December 6th, 1865.  But were African-Americans really free?  It wasn't until President Lyndon B. Johnson signed in to law the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it became illegal to discriminate against those Americans whose skin pigment is black, brown or any other color.  Thanks predominately to efforts - nearly a half-century earlier - by The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Johnson, a black man named Barack Obama was able - in 2008 - to not only run, but be elected the President of our nation.

     I had thought that after the majority of Americans had voted Mr. Obama in to office the first time - and certainly after he won re-election in 2012 - that bigotry and prejudice in the U.S. were becoming tragedies of the past.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.

     It's disgusting to hear the foul and venomous language that is spewed off the toxic tongues of so many Americans.  It's embarrassing that other countries are witnessing such trash.  For the minds of many to believe in a hatred of people because of their race, their ethnicity, their religion, their gender identity, or who they love...can, at times, be criminal...but is definitely deplorable and despicable.

     So what is a transgender person?  According to the American Heritage Medical Dictionary, the definition of transgender is "identifying as or having undergone medical treatment to become a member of the opposite sex."  But Mosby's Medical Dictionary defines transgenders as "individuals who do not fit within rigid gender norms and incorporate one or more aspects, traits, social roles or characteristics of the opposite gender."  However, although a "transgender" person is not necessarily identified by the obsolete word "transsexual"...do people - who are against The White House directive - actually think that a teenage student...who introduces herself as a girl...but who has male body parts...is going to want to undress or take a shower...with kids who are female by birth?  A similar question could be asked about a pupil who identifies himself as a boy, but who was born with female organs. 

     The New York Times reports that most middle-school and high school boys... won't strip down naked in a locker room...in front of other prepubescent or adolescent males.  One 16-year old boy told the newspaper that instead of showering after gym class, "You just cake on the deodorant and hope you're not going to smell too bad."  Meanwhile, according to the Orlando Sentinel, students would rather stink than shower in front of other kids.  The publication reports that veteran educators say that teens and tweens not showering at school isn't that unusual in a world where people of all ages are more and more concerned about their privacy.  The Sentinel says boys...tend to douse themselves with body sprays.

     Although young girls are statistically not as embarrassed as boys, a study by Northwestern University indicates that some females require an isolated area in a locker room...while others are not as uncomfortable about being nude in front of other girls.  However, the research found that many teenage girls are simply self-conscious...if they feel their bodies are not as beautiful as their female classmates.  Therefore, does this whole controversy about transgender kids undressing and showering in school locker rooms make sense?  Will students be doing it anyway?

     And when it comes to using the toilet...think logically.  Nobody can tell anyway... if the person in a stall...is a male...or a female.

     The White House guidelines follow a Justice Department lawsuit against North Carolina over a new state law, which the Obama Administration says disobeys the Civil Rights Act.  The so-called "Bathroom Law" has caused a heated debate and orders transgender people to use bathrooms, showers and changing rooms that correspond to their gender at birth.

     Civil Rights, Religious Rights, Gay Rights, Gender Rights, Transgender Rights and Human Rights of all kinds...for everybody...cannot be violated.  And when they are...thankfully we have a leader in President Barack Obama...who will not allow it.

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

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Photo credits: eurweb.com (President Barack Obama #1), cnn.com and turner.com (Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick), commons.wikimedia.org (former President Abraham Lincoln), newyorksocialdiary.com (former President Lyndon B. Johnson), huffingtonpost.com (The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) and freebeacon.com (President Barack Obama #2)
 
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