This almost is the most insane thing I have heard all week. Seperate bathrooms provided for modesty between the genders now amounts to discrimination against the sexes... Is this country truly moving towards the old ways of Sodom and Amora? When will the plagues begin? May we be sheltered from the storm our liberal leaders will bring on us?
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/04/08/maine-commission-moves-ban-gender-specific-school-bathrooms-teams/Maine Commission Moves to Ban Gender Specific Bathrooms, Sports Teams in Schools
By Diane Macedo
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FOXNews.comThe Maine Human Rights Commissions taking heat over a proposal to ban schools from enforcing gender divisions in sports teams, school organizations, bathrooms and locker rooms, saying forcing a student into a particular room or group because of their biological gender amounts to discrimination.
The little girls
' room won't be just for little girls anymore, if the Maine Human Rights Commission has its way.
The commission is taking heat over a controversial proposal to ban schools from enforcing gender divisions in sports teams, school organizations, bathrooms and locker rooms. It says forcing a student into a particular room or group because of his or her biological gender amounts to discrimination.
The issue came to light last year when the commission ruled that, under the Maine Human Rights Act, a school had discriminated against a 12-year-old transgender boy by denying him access to the girls' bathroom.
Now the commission aims to issue guidelines on how schools should deal with similar situations in the future. It would make Maine the first state to implement such guidelines for schools as young as preschool and nursery -- and even some private schools.
But not everyone in the state is on board with the current proposal.
Some school districts and organizations have criticized the commission for making its initial ruling without getting enough input from conservative groups, and then for coming up with proposed guidelines in what some described as closed-door sessions.
"The conservative side was never brought in on the discussion in the first place, if you look at who gave testimony, written testimony, etc., in the beginning,” Bob Celeste, a Maine resident, told FoxNews.com. “When you only bring one side in, you’re not looking for an honest debate. You’re looking for an agenda.”
Once it came time to vote on the guidelines, the commission again came under fire for not doing enough to inform Mainers of the vote, and for not allowing the public to speak at the hearing where it was held.
“We found out about this hearing by accident. We were never informed of it,” said Celeste, who was the first person to speak out at the March hearing.
“When I went to the hearing I expected to ask, ‘Why are they doing this?’ And they said that they weren’t going to have public hearings,” he said. “I said ‘Mr. Chairman, it’s getting late, when are we going to be able to ask questions?’ and he said, ‘You can’t.’”
Celeste says he then walked out of the meeting, but other outraged citizens got very vocal after his departure and apparently persuaded the commission to postpone the vote.
Now those critics are looking to get their voices heard again at a public hearing on the issue next month.
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