(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Montana politicians using lunchrooms as an excuse for gripes with locker rooms – Daily Montanan [1] ['More From Author', 'August', 'Darrell Ehrlick'] Date: 2022-08-18 If Donald Trump and some Republicans cling white-knuckled to the “Big Lie” — the thoroughly vetted and discounted theory that the 2020 Election was stolen, with all its attendant conspiracies and hucksters — then a growing number of state officials are engaging in a “Little Lie,” another twisted labyrinth of conjectures that concludes President Joe Biden wants kindergartners to go hungry because of transgender athletes. What passes for politics these days is a reality that wouldn’t even pass as second-class satire on late-night television. Yet, it’s important to understand just how this bizarre theory has been concocted because it’s exactly the election-time claptrap that fires up the base of conservatives while continuing to stoke fears about those who are different, a veritable two-for-one political proposition for the right. The Biden administration did indeed put out a call to review guidelines for Title IX. Many people know Title IX as one of the landmark pieces of legislation that helped boost equity and protection for many different classes of people in athletics and education, notably attempting to put women’s sports on par with men’s. However, Title IX went much deeper than that by requiring institutions and state government that use federal education funds (read: everyone) to engage in reporting guidelines to ensure Title IX was not just a paper tiger. Today, Title IX is deeply embedded in many aspects of public education, including even funding for school lunch programs, which requires equitable distribution of food programs, and special attention to those districts and schools which are at a socioeconomic disadvantage. There are many long-established practices within Title IX programs to ensure that vulnerable or minority populations are protected. For example, no one would blink if the federal government came down like a bag of hammers on a school district which refused to serve lunch to students of color because of their skin tone. And in the same manner, the Biden administration asked that any of the existing protections be extended to include sexual orientation and gender identity. In other words, you can’t refuse educational opportunities to a student because they’re transgender or gay. Some states attorneys general and governors, including our own Austin Knudsen and Greg Gianforte respectively are leading public crusades against the Biden administration’s proposal to include those other two categories within the umbrella of Title IX. Their rationale – to use that word liberally – is that by requiring states to investigate or report instances of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity that it compels the state to protect transgender or gay students. Furthermore, protecting children who already face monumental hurdles is so odious, burdensome and offensive that if Montana refused to do so, it would threaten federal educational funding, thereby putting school lunches for cute little kids at risk, even though the Biden administration has specifically said it’s not going to cut off school lunches. What makes this irony particularly bitter and rich in Montana is that it was the Gianforte administration, which had refused Biden’s COVID relief funding at first, that nearly wiped out summer school lunch programs across the state this summer. This little political tea-pot tempest is instructive for two reasons. It demonstrates how far state Republican leaders are willing to twist a straightforward rule to stoke fears and contempt for those who are different and need protection. And, it’s an Election Year stunt meant to angry up voters. While Title IX and the threat of losing any federal educational funding is a big lever the Biden administration can use, the mechanics of cutting off any funding is fuzzy because it’s not often done precisely because of the harm it does to schools and kids who need it most. Regardless of party, many administrations are loathe to follow through on cutting funding because of the political backlash it would create and because it would only harm children, not the policymakers who are usually making the questionable decisions (that’s you, Montana). Yet, saying that men must be allowed to stroll freely through girls’ lockerooms or risk educational funding is a scare tactic meant to whip citizens into a frenzy. What the Biden administration is proposing is not coed urinals, rather a requirement that states must investigate claims of discrimination within schools – just the same as they have been for decades, and that would include reporting claims of sexual orientation or gender identity. The policy requires reporting, not giving transgender students a key to all the bathrooms. By setting the false dichotomy that school districts are either being forced to choose between hungry kindergartners or male students dressing up to see inside women’s locker rooms a la “Porky’s” only serves to make LGBTQ students more vulnerable and targeted. This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Transgender students have sadly become the new abortion issue. That is, they are the new wedge topic now that conservatives have triumphed at the Supreme Court by overturning Roe vs. Wade. But losing abortion as a campaign topic risks the Republican Party becoming driftless, so the next thing they want to do is fill voters’ heads with boogeyman scare tactics to make you believe that every transgender student is nothing more than a rapist in disguise, wanting to hangout in a bathroom or locker room, waiting to take away your daughter’s chance at making or varsity … or worse. Count me as one of those liberal loudmouths that would be more than happy to put up a helluva fight if Biden or anyone else wants to cut school lunch programming for any reason. Full stop. Locker rooms and lunchrooms both need support, and both are no place to score political points. [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2022/08/18/montana-politicians-using-lunchrooms-as-an-excuse-for-gripes-with-locker-rooms/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/