The U.S. Department of Education is telling a suburban Chicago school district that if it doesn't change its policies and allow a transgender high school student to use the girls' locker room, the district could lose federal funding.

Township High School District 211 tried to accommodate the student -- a teen male who identifies as female and participates on one of the school's girls' sports teams -- by putting up "privacy curtains" that she could use in the girls locker room. But she and the American Civil Liberties Union contended that was discriminatory.

According to CNN's story on the matter the Department of Education ruled that while the school could put up the curtains they couldn't enforce their use. Up until now the transgender girl has been forced to change and shower separately from the other girls. Now, if the school district doesn't follow the federal directive, they stand to lose funding under Title IX.

As a good liberal, I've always said live and let live. If someone is a man but identifies as a woman, who am I to say different? I don't understand it, but I've always felt it's not for me to understand -- and since it has no effect on my life, it is none of my business. I would love for everyone to be happy, and as long as they don't hurt anyone else then let them be.

That tolerance however has limits, however. One of those limits is that despite this boy identifying as a girl, she is not biologically a girl and I don't feel like she belongs in the same locker room or restroom with my daughter.

My 14-year-old daughter is in color guard in high school, and while I know she's too shy to change clothes with anyone looking, there will potentially be situations where others are changing or walking by the shower where she could see someone of the same sex naked. I'm not naive -- at her age, she's probably seen a photo of a human male in the past. I just don't think she should be put in a situation in which boys who identify as girls can shower among biological girls with their genitals out for everyone to see.

In a (potentially feckless) effort, we as parents try to protect our children as much as we can. Most high school kids, even the sexually active ones, are too immature to fully understand human sexuality and all of its ramifications. So we try to awkwardly answer their questions while keeping them as innocent (naively) as we possibly can. As parents that is our right.

Then there are the obvious double-standards. For instance if kids were caught looking at porn on their cellphones in school, they'd be disciplined. But having a girl with male genitals showering in the same locker room is perfectly fine? It doesn't reconcile.

Then what if boys who identify as boys decide to try to pretend they are transgender girls in order to gain entry into the girls locker room? Who decides whether they're lying? Is there someone who judges whether they've worn women's clothing long enough and acted like a woman long enough to qualify, or do we let anyone who says they are the opposite sex of what they are biologically into any restroom or locker room they wish? If so, then why don't we just have one locker room and one restroom for all sexes?

As a father, I'm very uncomfortable with the idea, and if they let a transgender girl into my daughter's locker room I would take that school all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary to get that student removed -- or, at the very least, would require my daughter not to use that facility when that student was there. I do not think my daughter should have to worry that she is going to see a penis in the girls locker room even if it is attached to someone who identifies as a girl.

I wish that "girl" no harm, and think discrimination is terrible, but is it really discrimination to disallow someone with a penis in the girls locker room? Do we have to install urinals for these transgender girls? The littany of potential issues makes enforcement of this kind of federal policy seem pretty impractical. While I also understand why they'd be uncomfortable using the boys locker, room I do not believe it's discrimination. You have girl parts, you use the girls restroom/locker room. You have boy parts, you use the boys restroom/locker room. Period.

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