Supporters, Opponents of New Guidelines to Gather in Fort Worth on Tuesday
Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is calling for the superintendent of Fort Worth schools to resign for following federal law by enacting a progressive new policy for dealing with transgender students.
According to the policy unveiled by Superintendent Kent Scribner last month, trans students are generally allowed to use restrooms and participate in athletics according to their gender identity. The policy also requires teachers to use preferred names and pronouns, and bars staff from disclosing students’ gender identity, including to parents, except on a need-to-know basis.
But not surprisingly, it’s the restroom provision that caught Patrick’s attention. In a statement, Patrick accused Scribner of putting “his own personal agenda ahead of more than 86,000 students attending 146 schools.”
“Without any discussion with parents, board members, principals, and other community leaders, Dr. Scribner’s unilateral action, underscores this lack of fitness to hold his position as superintendent,” Patrick said. “Campus safety should be of paramount concern for anyone in his position. Every parent, especially those of young girls, should be outraged.”
In an interview with WFAA-TV, Patrick said he’s also calling for three members of Scribner’s executive staff to resign. And if they refuse to do so, he’s asking the school board to suspend them at its regular meeting Tuesday night, where supporters and opponents of the policy are expected to turn out in droves.
“This is uncalled for,” Patrick said. “So we want a 15-year-old boy full of vim and vigor that every 15-year-old boy has, walking into the girls’ bathroom. They’re just creating trouble. For what? This superintendent, he’s so irresponsible for doing this, that he needs to step down.”
As we reported the other day, the Fort Worth district’s new policy has also prompted calls for stonings from some critics, including a former GOP legislative candidate.Â
As for Patrick, his opposition to trans rights is nothing new. He spent more than $50,000 on a TV ad opposing Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance — in which he railed against “Men in Women’s Bathrooms” — and he recently called for a statewide anti-trans “bathroom” bill.
Also Monday, GOP Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who last week sent a threatening letter to Target over the retailer’s support for trans rights, applauded GOP North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory for filing a lawsuit against the Department of Justice in defense of the anti-LGBT House Bill 2.
Equality Texas issued the following statement responding to Patrick and Paxton:
“The Lt. Governor and Attorney General demonstrated today that they are blinded by transphobia. Federal education guidelines define the rights of every public school student, including transgender students, and we commend the Fort Worth School District and its superintendent for issuing guidelines which are consistent with federal law. By fueling hysteria and creating panic where none need exist, the Lt. Governor appeals to the worst chapters of our history, in which discrimination runs rampant and understanding and compassion are absent. Transgender students, like transgender adults, don’t want to cause any problems;  they simply want to use the bathroom when the need arises. Ignoring federal law, as the Lt. Governor urges the Fort Worth school district to do, would put at risk significant federal educational funds on which our state depends and would ultimately cause for our state the significant economic chaos now faced by North Carolina. The demands by the Lt. Governor and the Attorney General that we should ignore federal law are not only dangerous and economically risky, but also demonize transgender students, many of whom are forced to drop out of school because of the constant bullying and aggression they face. Equality Texas calls upon our state leaders to expend our state’s resources on improving public schools, rather than putting their funding at risk in a cruel and futile attempt to deny equality to all.”Â
I’ll be live-tweeting from Tuesday’s Fort Worth school board meeting, which begins at 5:30 p.m. Central time. Follow me @LSQnews.Â
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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license