This is ‘civil rights’? Pro-family leaders react to California school’s transgender settlement

by Kirsten Andersen

ARCADIA, CA, July 26, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-family leaders reacted with stunned disbelief this week to the news of a settlement in the case of a Southern California girl whose parents filed a federal civil rights complaint against their local school district after their daughter was not allowed to sleep in a hotel room full of boys during field trips, despite her belief that she is a boy trapped in a girl's body.

After two years of investigation by the Obama administration's Department of Justice, the Arcadia Unified School District agreed to a settlement in which they admit no wrongdoing, but will allow the teenage girl, who is about to enter ninth grade, to use the facilities of her preferred sex rather than her biological one, as well as to participate in activities intended for boys only.

Additionally, they will provide sensitivity training for their staff and faculty and add “gender identity” to the definition of “gender discrimination” in the district’s anti-discrimination policies.

That means from now on, the school district will allow students to use the showers, restrooms, and sleeping quarters of the opposite biological sex if they identify as “transgender.”

On Friday, conservative and pro-family leaders took to Fox News to criticize the decision, which they say is unfair to other students at the school.

Steve Johnson, who heads the local Arcadia Republicans, blamed President Obama for unleashing the DOJ on the school district, saying, “This is just a decision handed down by the Obama administration.”

He said the girl’s classmates are unhappy about the settlement. “The restroom can be a very personal thing for kids growing up,” Johnson said.

Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition also criticized the decision. “We are seeing a trend here nationally where we have individuals who are psychologically unhealthy who are always getting with they want, but what do you do about the hundreds of other children in the school affected?” she asked.

Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, told Fox News that the DOJ overstepped its bounds in investigating the case in the first place, which he says had nothing to do with civil rights.

Attorney General “Eric Holder needs to reread the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and find out that civil rights are based on an unchangeable, immutable characteristic,” Thomasson stated. “You cannot change your genes or your gender. You have chromosomes and they are either XX or XY. This is a girl who has been environmentally warped to believe she is a boy, and, instead of coddling this confused child, her parents should have gotten her into counseling with an expert on gender confusion.”