Obama’s Legacy: Transgender Male to Shower with Girls!

A transgender student, considered female by the school and listed as female in their records, filed a civil rights complaint for not having access to the girls’ locker rooms and showers but instead having to use an alternate private washroom. The school later offered to put up privacy curtains, but the student would be required to use them if he wanted to use the girls’ facilities. The Office for Civil Rights has decided that this student shouldn’t be compelled to use a privacy curtain (even though he said he would) and that this is discrimination. I would say that such decisions are really a part of President Obama’s legacy! And I know he is proud of his views on gender being implemented like this. One day he will have to answer to the Lord for what he has led this nation to do.

What should Christians make of issues like these? Well, firstly we should note that this boy doesn't need to be treated like a female (despite his gender designation in school records, which are just pieces of paper) because "she" isn't a female. Scripture is clear that we are designed and created “male and female” (Genesis 1:27) in the image of God. We need to honor God’s design and not try to change what He has made distinct.

Now, as the school board pointed out, allowing this student to use the girls' showers violates the privacy rights and potentially the safety of females in the 12,000-student school district. The school district claims that it did not allow this student to access to girls’ locker rooms because “permitting Student A to be present in the locker room would expose female students to being observed in a state of undress by a biologically male individual . . . [g]ranting Student A the option to change her clothes in the girls’ locker room would expose female students as young as fifteen years of age to a biologically male body.” The report also noted that several of the female students expressed that they felt uncomfortable undressing with a male in the room.

So, this is once again a case of a school district being forced to make unreasonable accommodations for a very tiny minority to the detriment of even the most basic privacy and safety of other students. Students and school officials who object to it risk being called bigots and accused of hate because these girls (and presumably their parents) don't want a gender-confused boy to see them naked in the shower, and they don’t want to see a naked boy in their locker room. Really, it comes down to this: Do female students have the right to say no to their bodies being on display for transgender boys, or do they (by law) have to support the delusions of this boy by welcoming him into one of the most intimate settings in the school?

Also, if gender is truly this fluid, as secularists regularly claim, why even separate boys and girls? Why not just have co-ed showers and locker rooms? After all, there are so many iterations and variations of "gender" now, we could never accommodate them all. So why not just do away with gender separation altogether if you hold to a secularist worldview? Students dealing with gender confusion need help, not encouragement to identify as a different gender.

Our culture has almost completely rejected the absolute standard of God’s Word and now everyone just does what’s right in his or her own eyes (Judges 21:25). News reports like this remind me of Genesis 11:4, 6 and 6:11–12, where the culture as a whole rejected God’s clear instruction and instead lived in sin and rebellion against Him and saw nothing wrong with it:

And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” . . . And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.” (Genesis 11:4, 6; emphasis added)

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. (Genesis 6:11–12)

In regard to the transgender issue, Scripture is clear that God created “male and female,” and we aren’t at liberty to change or disregard God’s design. Of course, in our sin-cursed world many people do struggle with their gender, but the answer is not to switch genders—it’s to turn to Jesus Christ and find the salvation that He offers. Gender reassignment surgery or hormone pills are not a source of hope—Jesus Christ is the only one who offers true hope and restoration for now and eternity. We need to love transgender individuals and gently and kindly point them toward Jesus.

You can learn more about a biblical response to gender issues in this insightful article from Answers magazine available to read for free online, “Transgender Identity—Wishing Away God’s Design.”

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.