In its latest assault on traditional Americans mores, federalism, the separation of powers, and common sense, the Obama administration is now claiming that a federal law passed more than 40 years ago (Title IX) somehow requires all public schools across America to provide access to bathrooms and sports teams based on whatever sex students want to say they are. In an otherwise fine account of the administration’s science-denying radicalism on this issue, one political analyst writes that the issue of transgender bathroom use “looks like a loser for conservatives with swing-state voters.” Really?
The source of this analyst’s claim is a lone poll, from CNN, that asked the following:
“Overall, do you favor or oppose laws that guarantee equal protection for transgender people in jobs, housing and public accommodations?”
Unsurprisingly, three out of four respondents said they favor such protections—for when are a majority of Americans going to say they oppose “equal protection” of the laws for anyone? Who says, “No, I oppose the equal protection of the laws for some”? The real question is what “equal protection” entails.
CNN got a little less general in a different question:
“Overall, would you say you favor or oppose laws that require transgender individuals to use facilities that correspond to their gender at birth rather than their gender identity? Do you [favor/oppose] that strongly or somewhat?”
How many people do you think understood this question, especially when it was read to them over the phone? Most likely, many respondents just defaulted to their general (and generally wise) opposition to laws that require people to do something against their will. In any event, 25 percent said they “strongly favor” such laws, 13 percent said they “somewhat favor” them, 18 percent said they “strongly oppose” them, and 39 percent said they “strongly oppose” them. (CNN didn’t ask how many people “strongly believed” they had understood the question.)
Before prematurely deciding that this is a losing issue for them, maybe conservatives should have a pollster ask some questions in plain English. I recommend a few questions along these lines:
Do you think public schools should be forced to let boys who say they are girls use the girls bathroom and showers?
Do you think schools should be forced to let girls who say they are boys use the boys bathroom and showers?
Do you think schools should be forced to let boys who say they are girls play on the girls’ sports teams?
Would you mind if your daughter got cut from a girls’ sports team at her school in favor of a boy who says he’s a girl?
Do you think questions about public school bathrooms should be decided by the federal government, or by states, local school boards, schools, or parents?
If you answered “by the federal government,” do you think such questions should be decided by the executive branch or by Congress?
It would be quite interesting to see the results of such polling.
Update: A helpful reader notes that, per USA Today‘s summary of Obama’s directive,
“Schools with sex-segregated accommodations on overnight field trips must allow transgender students to sleep with students of their chosen gender. Like bathrooms, schools can offer single-occupancy sleeping rooms, but they may not require transgender students to use them unless all students have access to them.”
The reader therefore suggests another useful poll question:
“Do you think public schools should be forced to put a boy who says he is a girl in a bedroom with a girl if the school has an overnight trip?”
Jeffrey H. Anderson, author of “The Main Street Tax Plan,” is a Hudson Institute senior fellow.
