The leadership of the Republican Party in the United States recently urged its members to reject the effort of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) movement to allow transgender students to use bathrooms and other school facilities designed for members of the opposite sex.
Siding with pro-family advocates, the Republican National Committee (RNC) passed a resolution last month encouraging "state legislatures to enact laws that protect student privacy and limit the use of restrooms, locker rooms and similar facilities to members of the sex to whom the facility is designated."
The Republican leaders also called gender policies of U.S. President Barack Obama's administration as "a federal governmental overreach, a misinterpretation of Title IX policies, and an infringement upon the majority of students' Constitutional rights."
As expected, the Republican leadership's resolution did not sit well with Democrats. Democratic National Committee spokesperson T.J. Helmstetter accused Republicans of "attacking" transgender individuals instead of prioritising important pieces of legislation.
"The GOP can't find time to consider a Supreme Court nominee, or pass immigration reform, or raise the minimum wage, or enact equal pay for women, but when it comes to attacking trans people, they've got all the time in the world," Helmstetter said, as quoted by LifeSite News.
The debate on whether transgender individuals should be allowed to use bathrooms and other facilities meant for persons from the opposite sex has drawn politicians' attention after the South Dakota state legislature passed a first-of-its-kind bill requiring school districts to provide single-sex facilities for students identifying as the gender different from the one they are.
However, South Dakota Republican Governor Dennis Daugaard on Tuesday vetoed the bill that would have made his the first U.S. state to dictate what bathrooms transgender students are allowed to use in public schools, Reuters reported.
The bill now returns to the legislature, where a two-thirds vote in both chambers would be required for it to pass.
The Republican leadership's resolution is consistent with at least two court decisions which did not allow transgender students to access opposite-sex facilities.
For instance, a Pennsylvania court recently ruled against a transgender student seeking access to opposite-sex restrooms in his college, with judges maintaining that "separating students by sex based on biological considerations ... for restroom and locker room use simply does not violate the Equal Protection Clause."
