Editor’s Note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.

A new reality is spreading across the United States of America in places of traditional privacy – public bathrooms in shopping centers, airports, swimming pools and schools.

Through President Obama’s U.S. Department of Education, public schools across the nation have received a letter concerning the rights of transgender students, who are estimated to be less than one percent of the general population. The letter went out last Friday to public school districts in all 50 states prompting protests from parents, teachers and principals, state boards of education, state and Federal lawmakers and presidential candidates.

“No student should ever have to go through the experience of feeling unwelcome at school or on a college campus,” said John B. King Jr., President Obama’s Department of Education secretary, in a statement issued on the new directives. “We must ensure that our young people know that whoever they are or whatever they come from, they have the opportunity to get a great education in an environment free from discrimination, harassment and violence.”

The letter demanding changes in the treatment of transgender students is intended to stop discrimination of transgender students in public schools. But the end game is to allow anyone to use any bathroom of their choice whether or not they are by birth men or women. Under this new reality any man, who claims to be a woman for whatever reason, can use a bathroom at a discount department store alongside innocent little girls. This is gay rights gone wild.

Parents across the nation are shaking their heads in disbelief over this new liberal madness gripping the nation. These new issues will certainly affect voters this fall as they head to the voting booth for the upcoming Nov. 8 general election.

Both Democrats running for president of the United States – former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders – have come out in support of these transgender anti-discrimination measures, while Republican New York billionaire Donald Trump has said that transgender and former Olympic champion Caitlyn (Bruce) Jenner can use any bath room ‘she’ wants in his Trump Tower building in New York City, but that’s a far cry from pedophiles abusing and photographing kids in the privacy of public bathrooms.

The new directives issued by the U.S. Department of Education do not carry the force of law, but school systems that do not adhere could face consequences such as mounting Federal lawsuits and loss of future federal money.

No doubt, Trump will be the political beneficiary of backlash and protests from communities across all 50 states who totally disagree with this entire matter. Most people agree that men’s bathrooms should be used by men and women’s bathrooms should be used by women. This ain’t gonna fly in traditional conservative America. Lawsuits already have been filed by states against these directives with promises of many more to come that will keep this issue in the limelight and the courts for years to come.

Trump has already stated that he wants to abolish the new ‘Common Core’ teaching methods directed to public schools by the U.S. Department of Education. There is also a brewing sentiment among Trump supporters and other conservatives to abolish that Federal agency and distribute the entire budget to local public school systems leaving the issue of education of children to state and local control, thereby ending all Federal constraints and regulations upon public education.

Over the past decade advancements in gay rights have been made and rightly so allowing adult gay and lesbian couples to marry and have equal rights with heterosexual couples, and to serve openly in the United States military, but for some these moves by the Federal government are another intrusion into the lives of everyday Americans. The will of a small percentage of people is being imposed on the total population including the children.

Most people are outraged that under these new directives a transgender student with a penis should be allowed to shower in the school’s locker room with female students.

The long-term effect of such moves by the Federal government will cause people by the thousands to stop shopping at malls and discount department stores and anywhere else that have all-gender bathrooms or those allowing transgenders to use either bathroom. On-line shopping will increase. People will lose jobs over this disturbing liberal trend due to loss of retail sales.

Parents will take their children out of public schools and find alternatives like faith-based schools, private schools and home schooling.

These anti-discrimination moves by the Federal government may spell ‘The End’ of public schools due to dwindling numbers of students who found another way for education while rebelling against their own government.

Folks, we don’t live in Mayberry any more. Sheriff Andy Taylor is speechless.

About the Author

 

Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

 

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.