You Won’t Believe What President Obama Used to Defend His Transgender Mandate
During a town hall meeting in Elkhart, Indiana, televised by PBS and moderated by “News Hour” hostess Gwen Ifill, President Obama once again turned to Scripture to defend what most Christians would deem indefensible.
Arvis Dawson, a self-described community organizer who said “there’s still a lot of love here” for the president, asked him why, “with all the pressing issues” he currently faces, “which bathroom a person uses such an issue.” Obama, visibly taken aback by the somewhat hostile question from an otherwise avid supporter, initially stammered his way through his answer.
“Well, I—you know what, it’s—it’s a great question. Uh, somehow people think I made it an issue. I didn’t make it an issue,” he said. “There—there are a lot of things that are more pressing, you’re absolutely right.
“What happened and what continues to happen is you have transgender kids in schools. And they get bullied. And they get ostracized. And it’s tough for them.
“And, you know, we’re of the generation where that stuff was all out of sight and out of mind and so people—people suffered silently. But now they’re out in the open. And the question then is, schools are asking us, the Department of Education, for guidance, how should we deal with this?
“And my answer is that we should deal with this issue the same way we’d want it dealt with if it was our child. And that is to try to create an environment of some dignity and kindness for these kids.
“And that’s sort of the bottom line. I have to just say what’s in my heart but I also have to look at, you know, what’s the law? And my best interpretation of what our laws and our obligations are is that we should try to accommodate these kids so that they are not in a vulnerable situation.
“Now, I understand that people, you know, for religious beliefs or just general discomfort might disagree. And I’m not the one who’s making a big issue of it. But if it—if the school districts around the country ask me what do you think we should do? Then what we’re going to do is tell them let’s find a way to accommodate them in a way that makes sure that these kids are not, you know, excluded and ostracized.”
Ifill asked Dawson if he was satisfied with the answer, and why the issue bothered him so much. Dawson said he was, and that his concern was the result of his “religious belief.”
“[C]oming from the church background that I come from, I believe in equal rights for all,” he said. “But I think, too, wherever you were going to the bathroom before, continue to go to the bathroom there. I don’t—I don’t have a problem with that.”
This time, Obama decided to turn to the Bible, rather than “the law,” to defend his actions, saying his own Christian faith dictated the need for the transgender mandate to public schools. He said “a lot of these kids” might not feel comfortable going to the bathroom if the status quo had remained unchanged.
“And—and look, I—I have profound respect for everybody’s religious beliefs on this,” he added. “But if you’re at a public school, the question is, how do we just make sure that, uh, children are treated with kindness. That’s all. And you know, my reading of Scripture tells me that that Golden Rule is pretty high up there in terms of my Christian belief.
“That doesn’t mean somebody else has to interpret it the same way. It does mean as President of the United States, those are the values that I think are important. Now, this is going to be settled by the courts, ultimately.
“There have been lawsuits everywhere. I just wanted to emphasize to you, though, this—it’s not like I woke up one day and I said, man, you know what we really need to do is let’s start working on high school bathrooms.”
Obama’s final comment drew laughter from the audience. He then concluded his response, saying he doesn’t get to choose the issues, but instead they come to him.
“You have to make your best judgment about what you think is right,” he said. “I’ve expressed what I think is the best judgment that is consistent with our traditions and our laws.”
