It’s not just conservatives (many with religious objections) who are attempting to block the Department of Justice, Department of Education, and the Obama Administration in general from implementing policies that mandate that transgender people be accommodated in government and school buildings. At least one feminist group is not happy and has filed a federal lawsuit to try to stop it.
There’s a lengthy history of some feminists—particularly those who classify themselves as “radical feminists”—rejecting transgender inclusion and the concept that sex can be changed. There’s even a term for it, “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist” (TERF). It can get pretty nasty.
One group, the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF), has filed suit against the Justice Department and the Department of Education in New Mexico, saying the guidance document that the Department of Education has put out telling schools that they must accommodate the wishes of transgender students to access the facilities (bathrooms, locker rooms, et cetera) of their chosen gender is a violation of Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination and allows for sex-segregated facilities in education.
The lawsuit argues that Congress has made it clear when crafting laws that references to a person’s “sex” specifically mean biological sex and not gender identity. Gender identity has historically been treated separately by lawmakers, and WoLF notes that Congress has specifically rejected attempts to add “gender identity” to civil rights laws.
The lawsuit also, interestingly enough, engages in the same panicked rhetoric from the right that transgender accommodation increases the vulnerability of women to rape and sexual assault by biological males looking for prey.
Read the rest here.