President Donald Trump’s reversal of President Barack Obama’s transgender school bathroom edict was welcome news to much of the country. Here in New York, however, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman have doubled down on their support for opposite-sex school locker room use by “transgender” students.
On February 23, 2017, Gov. Cuomo wrote State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia to call for the issuance of “a directive to school districts making it clear that transgender students in this State are expressly protected from discrimination and harassment under New York State’s laws and policies.” In his letter, the Governor noted that the Dignity for All Students Act protects New York’s students from discrimination based on gender identity or expression.
For their part, Attorney General Schneiderman and Commissioner Elia issued a joint statement in which Attorney General Schneiderman described the Trump Administration’s action as “dangerous and divisive” and declared that his office would “use all the existing tools of federal, state, and local law to ensure that transgender kids are…provided equal access to all programming and facilities consistent with their gender identit[ies].”
Of course, all students should be safe in school, and students with gender dysphoria should be treated with compassion; however, perpetuating those students’ confusion by allowing them access to opposite-sex facilities is not a compassionate thing to do.
Asm. Dean Murray (R-C-I, East Patchogue)
Fortunately, not all of New York’s elected officials are bathroom bullies bent on pushing a transgender ideology in public schools. For the second year in a row, Asm. Dean Murray (R-C-I, East Patchogue) has introduced a bill (A.5422) that would restore sanity and common sense to restrooms and locker rooms in public schools, colleges, and universities, and to state agencies.
NYCF applauds Asm. Murray for his bravery in taking on this emotionally-charged issue. New York’s youth deserve public schools that do not make them unwitting subjects in bizarre left-wing social experiments. They also deserve to be able to change their clothes and shower without having their privacy invaded by members of the opposite sex. We call on Members of the Senate and the Assembly to follow Asm. Murray’s lead by co-sponsoring Bill A.5422.