ADF petitions Supreme Court to eradicate trans protections in public schools

Tuesday, Alliance Defending Freedom petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court ruling allowing a Pennsylvania school district to accommodate transgender students. In a sane world the Supremes would refuse to hear the case but that was pre-Kavanaugh who is a defender of the faith.

If the Court agrees to hear the case my only hope is that they will respect the independence of the school district to set policies. The case is captioned: Doe v. Boyertown Area School District.

Right off the bat, the lawyers at ADF, an anti-LGBT hate group, demonstrate their biases:

Boyertown Area School District by policy authorizes some transgender students to use high school locker rooms and restrooms that match their subjective gender identity rather than their objective sex, as a means of affirming their beliefs about their gender and promoting tolerance. …

ADF is asserting that gender is subjective. Subjective (the opposite of objective) ordinarily means that something is influenced by personal feelings but it also means something that is not clear cut; possibly ambiguous. Discredited conversion therapy is predicated on the idea that sexuality is subjective.

The school district is not “affirming their beliefs about their gender.” Rather, it is affirming their gender. The proper assumption is that someone's gender is objective. ADF is confusing the state of gender with their literalist, subjective Christian beliefs.

Since the appeals court decision in this case, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement in full support of gender affirmation. Gender affirmation is more than a care model. It should extend through all aspects of the life a of transgender child.

The primary question asked of the Court continues to suggest that gender is a touchy-feely amorphous emotional state:

Given students’ constitutionally protected privacy interest in their partially clothed bodies, whether a public school has a compelling interest in authorizing students who believe themselves to be members of the opposite sex to use locker rooms and restrooms reserved exclusively for the opposite sex, and whether such a policy is narrowly tailored.

This case could affect every school and every trans student in the United States. We will get through the Trump presidency. The larger problem is in the courts. We will be living with Trump's appointments for several decades.

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