The U.S. Department of Agriculture has now officially embraced President Joe Biden’s transgender agenda and is taking steps to ensure schools comply. If schools don’t adopt transgender bathroom policies, the Biden administration reportedly plans to withhold food funds intended for needy children.
Earlier this month, the department’s Food and Nutrition Service announced it will interpret the prohibition on discrimination based on sex found in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and in the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The department said its action is in line with President Biden’s Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation and is consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County which prohibits discrimination along those lines.
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The Federalist reports what all that legal jargon means is that K-12 schools will have to allow transgender boys into girls’ bathrooms, showers, and sleeping quarters to obtain federal funds for lunches, breakfasts, and snacks.
A U.S. Department of Education spokesman told the news outlet there will be press releases from several agencies within the Biden administration announcing this policy, followed by formal rulemaking in June.
“It seems to be playing politics with feeding poor kids, which is really unfortunate,” John Elcesser, executive director of the Indiana Non-Public Education Association, said in a phone interview with The Federalist. “Because if a school feels like they cannot participate because it’s in conflict with their mission or values if a religious exemption is not granted, you’re taking away a program that’s feeding low-income kids.”
The National School Lunch Program on average, provided low-cost or free lunches to 29.6 million children each school day in nearly 100,000 public and nonprofit private schools (grades PK-12) and residential child care institutions in 2019 at a total cost of $14.2 billion, according to the USDA. The following year, 76.9 percent of all NSLP meals were served free or at a reduced price.
Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Greg Baylor told The Federalist that religious institutions, however, qualify for a waiver exempting them from these requirements. According to the 1972 Title IX law, he said, religious institutions don’t have to file any paperwork to be exempt, although they can if they wish.
But government schools will not be exempted.
Trans Bathroom Policies Can Put Girls at Risk
As CBN News reported, outrage over a student, who was charged with bathroom-related sexual assault at two different school campuses, prompted parents to speak out against Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) making questionable accommodations for transgender students.
A teenage girl was sexually assaulted in a bathroom at Stonebridge High School back in May of 2021 after a boy wearing a skirt entered the girls’ bathroom.
The transgender teen was later found guilty of sexual assault and sentenced to remain on supervised probation in a locked juvenile treatment facility until his 18th birthday.
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