COALITION FOR JEWISH VALUES APPLAUDS TRUMP REVISION OF TRANSGENDER GUIDELINES
Calls revised guidelines a “strong stance in favor of family values and common sense.”

The Coalition for Jewish Values today applauded President Trump’s reversal of transgender guidelines for educational institutions introduced by the Obama Administration as a “strong stance in favor of family values and common sense.”

Under the Obama guidelines, 16,500 public school districts and 7000 public colleges, universities and trade schools were required to allow those of one biological gender to, with a simple declaration, violate the privacy of the restrooms, locker rooms and showers used by the other.

Permitting males, in particular, unrestricted access to private areas reserved for females is contrary to basic standards of modesty and decency, and an open invitation for otherwise illicit and perverse acts. For millions of women and girls across the country, the Obama regulations were bound to cause tremendous discomfort, embarrassment and anxiety, knowing that at any moment a biological male could enter a very private facility reserved for females.

CJV Board member Rabbi Aryeh Spero remarked, “It’s a crucial issue, especially for those who appreciate and safeguard the modesty of women and girls, in terms of their privacy and ability to be comfortable in public places. For most of us — those with traditional family values — this is a simple matter of basic civil rights.”

The core of Western ethics says that God created male and female separately (in Genesis 1:27). Accommodating the needs of a small minority should never infringe on the rights, liberties and sensitivities of the vast majority. When Title IX was added to the Higher Education Act in 1972, no one imagined that prohibition of gender discrimination could be interpreted to permit and demand violation of basic standards for privacy and decency. The CJV is grateful that President Trump has righted this wrong.

The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), a national organization directed by prominent rabbinic leaders, articulates an authentic Jewish perspective on current events. The CJV begins with the premise that something can legitimately be called a Jewish value only if it comes from the Torah and millennia of Jewish teaching. The CJV promotes traditional Jewish values through writing and teaching derived from authentic Jewish thought.