North Dakota

Valley News Live checked on with schools in eastern North Dakota to see how they are responding to Obama’s directive:

Barnes County North: “As of right now, we do not have any students who this impacts. This is on the agenda for our next school board policy committee meeting. Hoping to have a policy in place before we have an issue.” Devils Lake Public Schools: “The Devils Lake Public Schools do not currently have a policy to address this. We have not encountered any requests for students to use a restroom that is not the sex identified on their birth certificate.” Fargo Public Schools: “Fargo Public Schools works with students and families if a need arises for accommodations on any issue pertaining to student needs. Those arrangements are made through the building principal.” Jamestown Public School District: “Our school board did recently bring up this topic as an area for future policy study. We have not had any student, family, or community requests in this area.” Kensal Public Schools: “I am hoping my board will adopt a policy where you can only use the bathroom based on your sex at birth.” Minnewaukan Public School: “We do not have any students who identify as transgender.” Northern Cass: “We have no students in our district that this currently impacts. In all reality, our Curriculum & Policy team has yet to discuss this matter, but it is clear we must address sooner than later. We will be having initial discussions at our next meeting.“ West Fargo Public Schools: “We do not have formal policy on this matter. However, any student that expresses a concern or need for a gender-neutral restroom is given access to one, like a staff restroom. We have had students utilize this process. As part of our annual policy review process, we are currently considering policies that would govern this matter.”

The North Dakota State Superintendent blasted the Obama directive, KFYR-TV reports:

Monday, State Superintendent Kirsten Baesler says she’s frustrated over what she calls overreach from the federal government. She says constant interference from Washington, D.C., makes it hard for the state to do it’s job. Saying the executive branch does not create law and if the federal government gets involved it’s our senators and congressman who make those laws. “It is clearly a local issue which is exactly where it belongs. These are decisions that are best determined by local school boards, local parents, community members to determine what’s best for their local school districts and the students attending those. So the Department of Public Instruction will be there to assist in whatever manor they would feel helpful to them but it clearly is a local issue that is best determined by our locally elected school board members,” said Baesler.

The station also reported on Gov. Jack Dalrymple’s statement on the directive:

“President Obama’s directive is another example of federal overreach and a blatant threat to withhold funding that is vital to student success. Local school districts are in the best position to ensure that all students are provided a healthy and safe learning environment.”

KEYZ Radio has more on the state response:

North Dakota joins a growing list of states that will ignore Friday’s White House directive to allow transgender students to use the bathroom that they sexually identify with, or risk losing Federal education funds. State Schools Superintendent Kirsten Baesler says this is yet another example of Federal overreach. “And I am frustrated by that. I believe that this is a local issue that should be decided by our local school board members and parents in our communities, and I think that anything more than that is a blatant example of overreach by the Federal government into the public education system,” says Baelser, who only two weeks ago announced the state would be abandoning the Federal Common Core teaching standards for math and English in favor of a new model that is written by North Dakotan’s for North Dakotan’s. As for the loss of Federal funds both Governor Jack Dalrymple and Baesler call that a “blatant threat”, and say for the time being our schools have more important issues to attend to.

“We’re advising our school districts to continue to focus on providing the high quality academic education to all of our students in North Dakota that our public has come to expect and that our students deserve in North Dakota,” Baesler tells news radio.

WDAZ checked in with central North Dakota schools:

I called Mandan Public Schools and they said they’re in compliance with everything the Department of Justice and Education issued as a guideline. Bismarck Public Schools was unable to release a statement by news time.

The Dickinson Press has a run-down of the responses from elected leaders:

“(Many students’) rights are violated because, by no choice of their own, they can be forced to use the restroom with someone of the opposite gender,” U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said in an interview last week. “We should be helping young people with counseling, with encouragement, not enhancing their confusion, but helping with who they are and not on a given day who they feel like they want to be.”

…

Cramer blasted the Obama administration for executive overreach. He said the heart of the matter is a “choice,” as he called it, to use a bathroom that didn’t correspond to sex at birth, adding “if we accommodate transgender lifestyle at younger ages, you’re not just accommodating it, you’re encouraging it.”

When asked about the letter and similar state-level matters, Chase Iron Eyes, the Democratic candidate running to unseat Cramer, issued a statement noting his stance against discrimination.

“I’m against discrimination of any form in North Dakota, as well as everywhere else and that certainly includes our schools,” Iron Eyes said in a portion of the statement. “Kids need to be respected for who they are, and making this a political hot potato does nothing to help educate or make people more aware of this issue.”

U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., sees the matter of federal versus local control.

In an e-mail, Hoeven’s communications director, Don Canton, explained the senator “believes all people should be treated with respect” but feels the decision on the issue rests elsewhere.

“He disagrees with President Obama’s directive because he thinks it’s up to school districts, parents, teachers and administrators to determine privacy policy with regard to school bathrooms, locker rooms and showers,” Canton wrote.

State Rep. Eliot Glassheim, D-Grand Forks, who is running for Hoeven’s seat, said he supports the letter’s stand against discrimination. He countered Hoeven’s states’ rights argument by suggesting the letter does not tell local leaders how to set their policies — just that they cannot be discriminatory.

“We can’t have discrimination anywhere,” he said. “(The administration) didn’t mandate … whether you have unisex bathrooms or what you have. That would be up to the individual school district. They just have to be careful to make sure that whatever their policy is it’s not discriminatory.”

Staff for U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., noted in a statement a correlation between transgender students’ suicides and “denied access to bathrooms in schools.”

“These decisions impact a small but particularly vulnerable population of children, and the consequences of not being permitted to be themselves can be severely damaging and long-lasting,” Heitkamp said. “They, and all students, deserve to be treated with dignity.”

Wisconsin

Gov. Scott Walker criticized Obama’s directive, Wisconsin Public Radio reports:

Speaking to reporters in Manitowoc, Walker said that the decree is an overreach. “The bottom line is issues like that need to be addressed at the local level,” he said. “That’s what we elect school boards for. It’s not an issue the federal government should be involved in, nor should the state. It should really be left up to the local districts.”

WKOW takes a look at a religious school receiving federal funds while also panelizing LGBT students:

A Baraboo school is under fire for allegations of discrimination against the LGBT Community.

A complaint has been lodged against St. John’s Lutheran School in Baraboo, claiming the school, which takes federal money, added new rules to exclude gay and transgender kids.

It’s an issue that shocks transgender woman Jamie Cook. She went to the neighboring St. John’s Lutheran Elementary in Portage, before transitioning into a transgender woman.

“That somebody is willing to punish a child, that’s my biggest issue with this this,” Cook said about the new policies.

“To find out that it’s such bigotry, it is hiding behind religion,” she said.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation recently learned about a letter sent home to parents in February, requiring parents sign a handbook pledge and provide a copy of their child’s birth certificate to prove gender.

“I would say we’re surprised, but more disappointed,” Freedom From Religion Foundation Attorney Patrick Elliott said. Elliott says because Baraboo takes Federal funding for school lunches, there’s an ethical problem.

The Baraboo News Republic has more:

Like many educational institutions, St. John’s Lutheran School in Baraboo uses federal tax dollars to pay for certain programs, such as free and reduced-price lunches for disadvantaged students.

The funds for those programs are taken from all U.S. taxpayers, without discrimination. And federal civil rights protections say that any student who legally qualifies for the programs can participate, regardless of race, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation.

But taxpayers whose children are homosexual or transgender may not be able to take advantage of those programs, at least not at St. John’s. That’s because officials at the private religious school say they have the right to discipline students for making what they refer to as “sinful choices.”

“I didn’t mean any kind of move around, or to manipulate the law or anything like that,” St. John’s Principal Craig Breitkreutz said about a letter he wrote to parents in February.

In the letter, Breitkreutz outlined new rules that required parents to provide a birth certificate and sign a parent handbook agreement prior to enrollment.

The birth certificate allows the school to know the child’s born gender, and the handbook agreement — which apparently was recommended by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod — lists discretions for which a student can be disciplined and expelled, including homosexuality.

Because the school receives federal funds for its lunch program, transportation and through the No Child Left Behind program, it must comply with civil rights laws, Breitkreutz wrote. That means it can’t deny entry to protected classes, such as homosexual and transgender students.

“If we cannot legally refuse students who are struggling with homosexuality or gender identification, we must maintain our right to hold to the truths of God’s Word,” Breitkreutz wrote. “In other words, although we do not have the right to refuse admittance to people choosing an outwardly sinful lifestyle, we do maintain the right to discipline and dismiss students for these choices.”

Rep. Glenn Grothman added to his long list of anti-LGBTQ quotes at a political convention captured by Right Wing Watch:

Grothman closed his convention remarks by discussing “what is becoming of America right now” because “a lot of us see America changing a lot.” He read an excerpt from Charles Murray’s book “Coming Apart” that discusses a 1962 poll in which 86 percent of women said that they would not have premarital sex with someone they were going to marry.

This led him to transgender rights issues.

“Remember there was a show ‘M*A*S*H’ a while ago in which some, you know, one of the comedy guys was wearing a dress?” he said. “Hillary Clinton says one of the goals is to get the transgenders into the military. That’s one of the goals.”

Grothman concluded that “we do have a moral decline in our country,” adding that he prayed that the U.S. would “regain the moral bearings that we should have so that God continues to bless our great country.”

– See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/gop-congressman-cites-mash-character-opposing-transgender-rights#sthash.utsJvUIk.dpuf

WSAU notes that the Stephen’s Point school district is prepared for transgender students:

Many school districts were prepared for the federal government’s directive two weeks ago concerning transgender students using bathroom facilities for which they identify themselves.

One such district is Stevens Point. Interim Superintendent Dr. Lee Bush and Director of Student Services Gregory Nyen told the Stevens Point City Times they have been discussing this for about a year already. Bush and Nyen confirm they received what was called a “joint guidance document” from the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, the Department of Education Office For Civil Rights, and the Department of Public Instruction. Nyen says the district was already in line with the document’s best practices, and added language relating to inclusion of transgender individuals to several district policies last March.

The administrators say they can neither affirm or deny presence of transgender students in the district, and that they need to respect their privacy, and identifying them as a group opens up opportunities for undeserved bullying or harassment.

Nyan says as they are approached with transgender concerns and requests, they will have to look at each case individually. “Just as we want to provide for the dignity and uniqueness of student A, affording them their rights may create a level of uncomfortableness in student B, and we then need to address the needs of student B, so there is not clearly a one-size-fits-all that we can apply as a school district.”

Iowa

Sen. Joni Earnst responded to the Obama directive, KCRG reports:

“We honed in on this specific issue when we have so many other issues that we need to be addressing right now. This was a state issue to be addressed by the state of North Carolina. We have addressed it here in Iowa,” Ernst said.

Rep. Steve King wants Christians to engage in civil disobedience over the Obama directive, Raw Story reports:

We should call for civil disobedience here. And there’s no reason for us to follow an unconstitutional edict from the president, who is on his way out the door,” he said.

King also told Conway that the only reason the White House came out on this issue was because the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ “personnel needed to find more things to do.”

“That is the root of this school policy or where Obama got it from,” King said. “So we’re going to explore that more fully. I need to be more astute at how movements begin. The genesis of these kinds of policies. So that we can go find them before they proliferate and become contagious across the countryside.”

Conway remarked that his daughters won’t want to shower at the gym anymore out of fear.

“Well, and that will probably change our culture,” King agreed. “We’ll have a bunch of sweaty women around.”

Iowa’s nursing facilities are facing criticisms of discrimination against transgender patients, the Des Moines Register reports:

Last August, Edwards had a stroke. She went to a rehabilitation facility in Clarinda, Iowa, and arrived at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines in March with bad wounds on her legs.

She was scheduled to be discharged Tuesday. But a hospital social worker said hospital staff checked with roughly 90 nursing homes and rehab facilities and none — except one that was 2 1/2 hours away in Muscatine — would take her.

Edwards’ legs are wrapped in compresses. She has very limited use of her right arm and needs help getting to a bathroom. She also struggles with mental health issues, including bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders.

But those conditions aren’t all that unusual in the general population.

Carter said a hospital social worker told him Monday one of the reasons they can’t find a nursing or rehabilitation facility near Des Moines is that Edwards is transgender. He said the social worker told him that facilities are accepting new residents say men don’t want to room with a person who is biologically male but identifies as a woman. Neither do their female residents.

Gov. Terry Branstad was sharply critical of Obama’s directive, WQAD reports:

During a press conference, Branstad called the move “blackmail.”

“Well, I think it’s really the decision of local schools and now you have the federal government stepping and saying ‘If you don’t do it our way, we’re going to withhold your federal money.’ I think that’s wrong,” said Branstad.

Iowa’s National Guard has no plans to be inclusive of transgender members, the Des Moines Register reports:

The top uniformed officer in the Iowa National Guard said Monday that no accommodations are currently being made for transgender soldiers and airmen.

Maj. Gen. Tim Orr, adjutant general of the 9,100-member Iowa National Guard, told reporters at a news conference at Camp Dodge that the Guard falls under federal laws and regulations of the U.S. Department of Defense, which has not provided specific guidance or regulations regarding transgender military members.

“We know that we will probably see something in the future, but until that comes out, we have not made any accommodations in our facilities at this stage. No, sir,” Orr said.

Asked specifically if the Iowa National Guard has any soldiers or airmen who currently identify as transgender, Orr replied, “Not at this point in time, none.”

Two women say they were attacked by homophobes in Davenport, KWQC reports:

Emotions were high and tears we’re shed Monday afternoon when Megan and Tessa sat down to share their story.

The two women say they were leaving the night club, Connections, in Davenport, Iowa early Saturday morning when they were assaulted.

The couple says it all started when they were holding hands outside waiting for their Uber. The two say that’s when a man started yelling degrading comments at them.

“Like how we should die and our kind shouldn’t be around here,” describes Megan.

But the two say that was just the beginning.

“So Tessa and my friend Megan and I just ignored them,” said Megan. “And we were turning towards them and from the corner of my eye, he punched me in the left side of my face.”

Shortly after the couple says they were attacked by over 10 women.

“They came out of the alley way. Some of them did come out of the bar too so we aren’t sure if they were all together,” describes Megan. “But when they came out of the alleyway, it seemed almost like it was planned.”

South Dakota

Leaders in South Dakota pushed back against the Obama’s administration’s directive on transgender inclusion, according to KSFY:

Republican South Dakota leaders say those threats are concerning, but don’t believe they should legally binding. “This is another overreach by the Obama administration,” Governor Denis Daugaard’s Chief of Staff Tony Venhuizen said. “If the President believes this should be the law he should propose a bill to Congress.” South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley agrees. “The President of the United States issues an executive order or sends out a letter setting forth a directive or mandate just simply lacks the legal authority to do what he’s trying to accomplish here.”