11-20-15 transgender policy hearing

The national debate over how to accommodate transgender students in public schools is playing out in a Wisconsin state Assembly hearing.  Republican Rep. Jesse Kremer spoke Thursday at an Education Committee hearing in support of a bill that opponents say would be a violation of federal law.  The bill would prohibit transgender public school students in Wisconsin from using the bathroom or locker room assigned to the gender with which they identify.  Kremer says the bill does not violate federal law, but instead protects the privacy and safety of all students.  ” I want to be perfectly clear I’m not stating that transgender individuals are sexual deviants, but I have three young daughters and when they go into a public bathroom if a 25 year old guy walks in behind her that should be raising some red flags,”  Kremer told WFDL news.    Dozens of students packed the hearing room in opposition to the bill introduced by Kremer and Sen. Steve Nass. Anti-abortion group Wisconsin Family Action is the only entity registered to lobby in support  of the measure.   North Fond du Lac School superintendent Aaron Sadoff says he thinks the bill is more about fear.  “This bill is one of those things that I don’t know what the problem is, plus there’s some danger here too…we have something called civil rights,”  Sadoff said.