Paul Muschick on transgender bathrooms: Boyertown schools provide rare win in vicious war

Transgender students scored a big victory Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court opted not to hear an appeal of their freedom to choose bathrooms in the Boyertown Area School District.More importantly, the Trump administration suffered a loss in its war against transgender people.The administration has been chipping away at their rights, regarding their ability to serve in the military and to be free from discrimination in healthcare, housing and work settings.Had the Supreme Court overturned Boyertown’s policy that students can use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity, it would have given Trump and crew a green light to bulldoze rights away in other areas.The court is leaning to the right with last year’s addition of Trump appointee Brett Kavanaugh. So this might have been an opportunity for justices to fall in line with the president’s thinking.But they didn’t.Tuesday’s action must be kept in perspective. The court did not offer a reason for not hearing the case. It doesn’t have to.And not hearing a case isn’t unusual. The Supreme Court hears fewer than 1 percent of the cases that come before it.The court’s decision also does not set a national precedent. But it lets stand a ruling by the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upholds Boyertown’s policy as the final word on the case.Hopefully, that opinion will deter others who would challenge policies that promote equality for transgender people.Tuesday’s victory is important to celebrate. But it’s also important to remember that it’s one victory on one front. And the Supreme Court will be weighing in on another issue involving transgender rights — discrimination in the workplace.It announced last month it would hear three cases about whether gay and transgender people are protected from workplace discrimination under federal civil rights law.The Trump administration maintains the law applies to discrimination between only men and women at work, and does not cover complaints related to gender identity. In 2017, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo rescinding guidance issued under the Obama administration that the law protects transgender people on the job.That’s similar to how the Trump administration rescinded Obama-era guidance for schools, such as Boyertown, to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity.The military this year changed its rules regarding transgender people serving in the armed forces. The government is adamant that the rules are not a ban and merely set standards, including that people serve as their biological sex.LGBTQ advocates argue the rules are discriminatory.Transgender people could be exposed to discrimination under proposed rollbacks in two other regulations announced last week.The Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to change a rule that could result in federally funded homeless shelters being allowed to deny services to transgender people.And the Health and Human Services Department released a proposed regulation that, in effect, says “gender identity” is not protected under federal laws that prohibit discrimination in healthcare.The only way that official oppression of transgender people will stop is if lawmakers step up and write protections into law. Efforts are underway, but they have a ways to go.A few weeks ago, the U.S. House passed the Equality Act. It protects people from discrimination based on their sexual orientation or identity in employment, education, access to credit, jury service, federal funding, housing and public accommodations.The vote was not veto-proof. The bill now is before the Senate. If it were to pass, Trump would have to decide whether to sign legislation that undermines his administration’s ideology.Similar legislation is pending in the Pennsylvania legislature to amend state law to provide those protections. House Bill 1404 has more than 80 co-sponsors.In previous years, such extensive support would not have mattered, as past versions of the bill were buried in the State Government Committee under the stranglehold of the committee chairman, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler.But Metcalfe lost that position. Hopefully, the new chairman will allow the bill to get its overdue airing and it will make it to the House floor. The Senate has a similar bill, Senate Bill 224, sponsored by Lehigh County Republican Pat Browne.Gov. Tom Wolf supports those bills, as well as bills that would expand the definitions of hate crimes to include LGBTQ people.Any legislation would be subject to interpretation by the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. If it’s well-written, the legislation should survive a challenge, or, as in the case of the Boyertown policy, not even merit a review.Morning Call columnist Paul Muschick can be reached at 610-820-6582 or paul.muschick@mcall.com
Source: Morningcall