Josh Earnest says Obama administration orders on transgender bathroom just ‘advice’ and ‘guidance’
What sounded like an order to school officials across America is only advice, says White House spokesman Josh Earnest, responding to the anger fueled by a federal letter to schools regarding transgender access to bathrooms.
“The guidance does not add additional requirements to the applicable law,” Earnest said of the joint letter from the Departments of Education and Justice. “The guidance does not require any student to use shared facilities when schools make alternate arrangements.”
More than half of the questions asked at the White House press briefing were about the new Title IX “bathroom law”guidance issued by the Obama administration on Friday.
“But what the framework does provide is advice for how school administrators can protect the dignity and safety of every student under their charge…This is not an enforcement action,” he said.
While Earnest says that, the document itself makes it clear that a condition of getting federal education aid is that a school comply with Title IX rules that ban discrimination according to sex, language the letter from the Departments of Justice and Education said means gender identity.
The letter also said that refusing to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms they want based on gender identity could be interpreted as a civil rights violation.
CNN noted that “The letter does not carry the force of law but the message was clear: Fall in line or face loss of federal funding.”
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