Potty Politics Plagues Public Schools

Potty Politics Plagues Public Schools

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

May 13, 2016

In the United States majority rule, minority rights has typically been the unwritten rule. Not according to the Obama administration who is attempting to micromanage the lives of all Americans by inflicting minority rule, majority irrelevance; and to make matters worse, he is impinging upon the public school children of this nation.

The Obama administration is doubling down on its lawsuit against the state of North Carolina by threatening the public school systems across the entire country, and thus foisting an immoral agenda on the children of this nation allowing the feelings of one child to trump the comfort of all others. (http://sanfordspeaksout.blogspot.com/2016/05/his-hers-potty-politics.html)

At the risk of losing federal funding, Obama’s toilet fetish would require public schools to permit any child the use of any bathroom facility and locker room based simply on how that child identifies, not based upon the realities of biology. According to the Obama administration, which is attempting to make this a civil rights issue, the so-called rights of a self-identifying child based upon feelings and not G-d-given biology actually must supersede those of the overwhelming majority. (See the column linked above for discussion of the Constitutional issue.)

In addition to threatening to eliminate federal funding for schools that refuse to succumb to his demented notion of equality, Obama is planning to take food out of the mouths of needy children. Such fiscal losses would include federal funding for breakfast and lunch programs designed to aid at-risk students. This feckless administration is willing to deprive or hold hostage already downtrodden children the basics in nutrition simply to acquiesce to the demands of a tiny minority; a tiny minority that is endeavoring to coerce and shame multi-national corporations into falling in line with these same demands at the risk of boycotts.

This is nothing more than politically correct intimidation by an obsequious weasel who, in 2008, promised to “fundamentally transform America.” North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory was prophetic when he said the bathroom bill battle in his state is “no longer just a North Carolina issue.” This is now a federal mandate that undoubtedly will find both wide scale objections by parents and non-parents alike that fear for the safety of children in public schools, as well as degenerates seeking to push the envelope of public decency and morality.

A high school student, a teenager, not attempting to transcend boundaries and defy authority is as rare as a kosher ham. John wakes up one morning decides he is Jane and wants to shower in the girl’s locker room at school after gym class. By the political machinations of Obama, this biological male now will be afforded the right to do just that, despite the complaints, objections, and protestations of all those biological females who use the girl’s locker room as a matter of course.

Moms? Dads? Do you want the above scenario unfolding in your public school? The public school you support with your property taxes? Call me old fashioned, but I am concerned for the safety of my wife and daughters, as well as their ability to use a public restroom and gym locker room unimpeded by a man who may or may not be a lurking pervert intent on committing some form of harassment or a heinous sex crime.

The time is nigh for people to stand up for what is right, moral, and decent in American society. The vast majority should not have to surrender their right to attend public school or use a public restroom or locker room because a handful of people wish to defy the natural order of biology. This is not an issue of fair and equitable use of public accommodations, as no one is being denied their use. All that is being requested is that biology be adhered to and those who have successfully completed gender reassignment surgery not be discriminated against based upon their new gender. Gender identity is an entirely different notion when a person decides not to act within the confines of their biology.

And what of the precedent this will set regarding Title IX and women’s athletics? Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 states that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Title IX never mentions transgender or transsexual individuals. If a male identifying as a female is permitted use of the girl’s bathroom and locker room, the next step is the ball field. This will become a breeding ground for all forms of shenanigans and chicanery. To deny the self-identifying female, yet biological male, a place on the girls’ soccer team, basketball team, softball team, volleyball team, track team, swim team, or any other female team sport will invite lawsuit after lawsuit. This is the United States – one of the most litigious societies on the planet. Will the United States be banned from the Olympics if the other countries don’t follow suit? (Former Bulgarian, East German and Soviet gymnasts notwithstanding.) The Title IX scenario is demonstrative of how out of control the entire premise of identity gender politics is and will ultimately become.

If ever there is a slippery slope, this is it. Granting Obama’s demands is the continuance of the demise of decent, moral, Judeo-Christian society. On the other hand, this could be the clarion call that is needed to wake up American society to the need for increased charter schools, parochial schools, religious schools, and home schooling. Perhaps the time has come for a tax revolution to stop funding public schools until they cease serving as a tool of the corrupt teachers’ unions (of which I was a one-time member), the Democrat Party, and an enslaver of the poor who have no alternative and become tools themselves of the Democrat Party and dependent on their lifelong largess.

Until that time, it is up to heroes like Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (R) to stand up to Obama and the federal government and protect the safety of all the children in the Lone Star State. He rightfully called it blackmail and is defying Obama. Let him set the standard that other governors will follow and stop the potty political insanity.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

His, Hers, & Potty Politics

His, Hers, & Potty Politics

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

May 11, 2016

The Obama administration, via Attorney General Loretta Lynch, is once again attempting to micromanage the lives of all Americans through ridiculous lawsuits pertaining to potty politics.

This need not be a lengthy screed, but as is typical of the Obama administration, they are literally making this a federal case by suing the state of North Carolina, thus forcing the Tar Heel State to countersue the federal government. Deigning to compare the current kerfuffle of alleged discriminatory practices in North Carolina pertaining to proper bathroom choices to the Civil Rights Movement and Jim Crow Laws is an insult to all who paid the ultimate price fighting for the rights and dignity of G-d given equality.

To tell biological males that they must use the men’s room; and to tell biological females they must use the women’s room is not subverting any of their civil rights. They are not being denied accommodations the way blacks were denied seats at lunch counters, lodging in hotels, housing opportunities in certain neighborhoods, jobs, equality on the ball field, battlefield, or in the classroom.

If Phil wants to jump into a dress and slap on some lipstick and call himself Phyllis, that’s his business. But when he decides to sashay into the ladies room to do his business, then it becomes all of our business. To reference a House episode where the good doctor divided two groups of potential team members into “danglers” and “non-danglers,” so too should our bathroom facilities remain divided. Just because a man isn’t feeling particularly manly today doesn’t give him the right to use the women’s room and make others feel uncomfortable and revert back to the men’s room the next day. Those men and women who complete gender reassignment surgery should be permitted use of the facilities of their new gender.

A reasonable, not necessarily simple, solution is to have a men’s room, a women’s room, and a single stall facility for those unable to figure out whether they are in Column A or Column B. Many large shopping facilities, malls and factory outlets, for example, already offer a third option called a family changing room designed for parents changing babies. This is a single stall option that can be utilized by anyone – one at a time. While this is clearly a reasonable solution, it may not be simple. Smaller businesses and service establishments such as restaurants or offices may not be spatially equipped to expand and install a third bathroom option. In those cases, danglers must use the men’s room and non-danglers must use the women’s room. This is a matter of biology, not feelings. Biology and gender are not debatable. We are as G-d created us.

The more prickly concern are the locker room and shower situations, which are larger more unwieldy spaces in businesses such as gyms and schools. A separate changing facility can be provided, but a private shower becomes infinitely challenging, thus the dangler/non-dangler proposition. There is a genuine concern about opposite genders simultaneously sharing shower facilities, especially in schools, where this has already become an issue. Shockingly there are actually people supporting the right of a student who merely identifies as the opposite sex to be permitted use of the shower of his/her choice. It is this brand of laissez-faire permissiveness lending itself to inappropriate interlopers taking advantage of a situation by committing exploitive acts against the unsuspecting and naïve. There is something extremely wrong here as it speaks to the continuing decay of the moral fabric of American society as well as the shrinking acceptance of Judeo-Christian values in this country.

The bigger picture is the legal overreach by the Obama administration as it seeks to usurp state law thus ignoring and bypassing the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which states that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Each state should have the right to determine its own policies. This should not be made a 14^th Amendment case either, as this is not an equal protection issue. (“…nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.) No one is being denied bathroom facilities.

While potty politics has become Obama’s latest fascination and priority, infinitely more paramount issues such as illegal immigration, securing the border, sanctuary cities, defeating ISIS, a growing heroine epidemic, and a failing public school system are relegated to the back burner. It’s time for Obama to get off the pot and concern himself with something important, like where he put his putter.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Target Flushes Decency

Target Flushes Decency

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

April 28, 2016

Capitulating to one of the smallest global populations, Target Corp., headquartered in Minneapolis, will inevitably cost itself millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of customers, a drop in its share value, and safety issues for women and young children.

A growing petition already signed by greater than 980,000 people pledging to boycott the second largest discount retailer because of a disastrously moronic decision to allow transgender patrons to opt for the bathroom and changing room “corresponding with their gender identity,” as opposed to the gender gifted to them at birth by G-d.

So, in a country where it is increasingly anything goes, Target has put women and children at risk by giving a green light to any Tom, Dick, and pervert to don a dress and commit any number of heinous acts. But to the good, decent, honorable people of the United States, anything does not go, and men are men, while women are women and the two should use their assigned restrooms and dressing rooms whether in Target, another retail establishment, a restaurant, supermarket, or school.

Similar legislation passed in North Carolina and was signed into law by Governor Pat McCrory (R) as a preemptive strike against an ordinance from being enacted in Charlotte permitting people from choosing bathroom and locker room facilities on a whim of how they feel at the moment.

In response to the Tar Heel State standing up to indecency and supporting the majority of its population, the NCAA, American Airlines, and PayPal have decried the decision as discriminatory and are rethinking conducting business in the state.

Former Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling, now a former ESPN analyst, was fired on April 20 for opining on this issue in favor of North Carolina’s HB2. Schilling noted that to want gender appropriate changing and restroom facilities garners one a label of bigot, homophobe, or worse – death threats.

On Facebook, Schilling posted: “A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic.”

Schilling has long been outspoken on numerous issues, taking a conservative stance, for which he remains non-apologetic. Schilling has every right to his opinions while ESPN has a right to relieve him of his duties. Schilling is a principled individual who knew his opinions were in the minority at ESPN and knew his days were probably numbered at the sports network. Schilling should be applauded.

It is vital for principled people like Schilling and those of us who write in support of decency in the United States to not allow those who live a laissez-faire lifestyle to intimidate the overwhelming majority of the people who know that it is common sense for men to use the men’s room and women to use the women’s room without putting anyone in harm’s way.

We live in dangerous times. We are hounded by terrorism both domestically and globally. We have a failing public school system in complete disrepair. We have rising crime rates due to a lack of value placed on human life – including black on black murders and the snuffing out of unborn children via the legalized murder called abortion.

But instead of ignoring what many may not think is a big deal – after all who sees what genitals a person has when they enter a toilet stall or a changing room stall? Just the opposite. I subscribe to what former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani calls the “broken window philosophy.” While replacing and repairing broken windows may not seem a priority, ignoring it makes the neighborhood worse. Ignoring the allowance of bathroom facilities, changing and locker rooms to be open to anyone’s impulse simply sets a dangerous precedence for the perverse to push against the majority of decent, moral Americans.

Call Target at 1-800-440-0680 to politely, yet firmly, express your outrage regarding this decision as well as to inform them of your decision to take your business and hard earned money elsewhere.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.