Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Susan Wright on the Right

Home
Politics and Religion
Philadelphia High School Students Forced to Fight the Bathroom Wars

Philadelphia High School Students Forced to Fight the Bathroom Wars

Last updated on: May 29, 2018 at 7:04 pm by Susan Wright

Philadelphia High School Students Forced to Fight the Bathroom Wars 2018-05-29T19:04:09-04:00 Susan Wright

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

That which is unnatural cannot be made natural, so at what point do we stop the social experimentation that is going on with our children’s lives?

In 2016, my home state of North Carolina was in a particularly intense battle, surrounding an ordinance voted on by the Charlotte City Council, when they decided to pass a sweeping city ordinance, that would have thrown public bathroom, in restaurants and schools, wide open.

As the broadly worded ordinance was written, merely by saying he “felt” like a woman, any man could have walked into any public ladies bathroom or locker room in the city, at any time.

There was no public vote. There was no consideration about how uncomfortable it might make others feel. Parents were not consulted, as to if they were opposed or not to allowing teen boys to share the same locker rooms with their daughters in school.

Governor Pat McCrory and the Republican-led General Assembly had an emergency vote on the issue, and voted into law HB2, the “bathroom bill” that restricted access to public bathrooms, state-wide, to the gender assigned at birth.

There were allowances made for single-occupancy, gender neutral bathrooms, but that wasn’t enough to calm the raging social justice warriors.

They descended on the Tar Heel state from every corner of the nation.

Who knew it was such a revolutionary idea to say men use the men’s room, and women use the women’s room?

The uproar was eventually quelled, when, in 2017, the General Assembly took it to another vote, and it was agreed that the state would repeal the bathroom bill, with the agreement that no city would attempt to unilaterally set laws regarding things as sensitive as bathroom issues, again.

The ordinance they attempted to pass was squashed, and things went back to where they were before.

I followed and discussed that situation extensively throughout the process, and was struck by the glib nature of those pushing in favor of making public bathrooms in the state a free-for-all.

A Charlotte newspaper, The Charlotte Observer, ran an op-ed regarding the controversy, and the writer actually said the words: “…girls will have to get used to seeing penises in their bathrooms.”

That’s ridiculous, and the kind of attitude that makes parents push back against the insanity that happens with liberals attempt to use our children and our schools as laboratories for social experimentation, with no regard to safety or moral issues.

And it has happened again.

The Christian Post is reporting on a case in Philadelphia.

Boyertown Area Senior High School is the scene for a legal case, Doe v. Boyertown Area School District. Parents and students alike are protesting against the district decided to make bathrooms in the schools anything goes.

One female student wrote about her experience.

“It’s amazing to think that one quick trip to the bathroom can change your life,” the student, Alexis Lightcap, began an op-ed for The Inquirer, published on Thursday.

“I was a junior in high school when I ducked into the girls’ room at school one day to find … a boy. I froze. Three years at this particular school, and that had never happened to me before,” she explained.

“The girls’ bathroom had always been the girls’ getaway place — a place for privacy, mostly, but also a little refuge — a place to get away from boys, maybe talk about boys, but not meet boys.”

What’s more, Lightcap says she told a teacher and the principal about her concerns, only to be blown off.

She continues.

“I soon found out I wasn’t the only one caught off guard by this new, ‘open door’ policy. A boy at our school was in the middle of changing clothes in the boys’ locker room when he looked up to see a girl changing her clothes nearby,” she said, referring to the other plaintiff in the lawsuit in question.

“Movies and TV try to make that sound funny or sexy, but that’s not how it feels when it happens to you. It’s just embarrassing, awkward, and uncomfortable.”

Adolescence is an awkward time, as it is. This puts undue pressure on the majority of students, and also makes for a potentially dangerous situation. The Boyertown district was very wrong to think so little of the majority of those students and their parents.

Lightcap said that she and the boy brought their concerns to the administrators of the school, to no avail.

The boy she is referencing is being referred to as “Joel Doe” and is the subject of the lawsuit.

“The administrator he talked to just told him to ‘tolerate it’ — to ‘make it as natural as possible.’ How do you make something as unnatural as that ‘natural?’ How natural would you feel, having someone of the opposite sex standing next to you — or your child — while you change clothes or go to the bathroom?” Lightcap asked.

Valid questions, under the circumstances.

Unfortunately for Joel Doe, Alexis Lightcap, and other students and parents who are expressing their discomfort with this decision, their lawsuit is not having a lot of success. The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania has descended and they are intervening in the case, happily declaring victory and pushing to make open bathroom doors the policy, nationwide.

In one of the rare moves, where I find myself agreeing with President Trump, he rescinded an Obama-era policy that would charge schools with Title IX sex discrimination violations if they attempted to stop the integration of boys and girls in school bathrooms and locker rooms.

This was part of the Obama administration’s vile attacks on the state of North Carolina, during the heat of the HB2 battle.

Still, Lightcap argued that despite what the media portrays, students with objections to new bathroom policies are not “bigots” or “religious extremists.”

“I guess it’s always easier to label people than to think about where they’re coming from,” she argued.

“I don’t have a problem sharing a bathroom with someone who identifies as transgender — provided they are the same sex I am,” she added.

“I do have trouble with a policy that says anyone who’s in an opposite-sex mood today can stroll in and observe me in my intimate moments — and with school officials who value the feelings of a few students more than the dignity and privacy of all those in their care.”

It’s commonsense. It’s common decency.

And sadly, we’re at a time in our world’s history where both are in short supply.

Previous Post

May 29, 2018

BREAKING: After Ill-Advised Tweet, Roseanne Barr's "Roseanne" Reboot Canceled

Next Post

May 30, 2018 Trey Gowdy Gives President Trump Good News, so Why Isn't He Calming Down?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month December 2021 November 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz