Rapid deterioration of our LibertiesThe federal government has stepped into a thorny issue in Illinois saying that schools must give transgender students full locker room access, or else. The Obama administration slammed a suburban Chicago public school district for not providing a (male) transgender student with access to the girls’ locker rooms. A U.S. Department of Education report issued at the end of a two-year investigation claims that the school violated Title IX, which bars discrimination in federally funded education programs.“The denial of access has also meant that in order to satisfy her graduation requirements and receive a high school diploma, Student A has had no other option but to accept being treated differently than other students by the District,” said the report.The federal ruling “makes clear that what my school did was wrong,” said the student in a statement to the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which has backed her. “This decision makes me extremely happy — because of what it means for me, personally, and for countless others. The district’s policy stigmatized me, often making me feel like I was not a ‘normal person.’”The school district now has 30 days to reach an agreement with authorities or risk losing up to $6 million in federal funding. The case could also be referred to the Department of Justice.But district officials did not back down, insisting that they “remain strong in our belief that the District’s course of action… appropriately serves the dignity and privacy of all students in our educational environment.”Now that gay rights have been nationalized in the United States, transgender rights are being pushed and more legally recognized. Nearly half of all U.S. states and many cities prohibit discrimination against transgender people as well as gays and lesbians. Nowhere has the battle over transgender rights been fiercer, however, than in public schools — especially their bathrooms and locker rooms.Meanwhile, “Houston’s city council narrowly approved new protections for transgender people and other minorities in May of 2014. But a fierce backlash against the law, including protests by local pastors, forced a referendum on the issue.” The ordinance was defeated in the referendum.The Obama administration’s Justice Department and its Education Department have both issued decisions arguing that transgender students must be given full access to bathrooms and locker rooms. But this is not the first time the Obama administration has supported transgender people. Recently, it decided to allow transgender members to serve openly in the military. It has also supported trans students in lawsuits in both Virginia and California.And the lawsuits are just beginning as the battle rages on in America’s schools. And the so-called “bathroom wars” have been pushed to the locker rooms where there is a perfect storm of sensitive conditions: hormonal teenagers, naked bodies and a communal setting, making locker rooms the locus of social anxiety over teenage students being exposed to the opposite sex.All of this exposes the absurdity of creating unnatural “rights.” It is impossible to accommodate everyone. Schools have argued that the new definitions and laws mean that the interests of a few students have been given priority over the privacy rights of the rest of the school.“Likewise also as it was in the days of lot.” Luke 17:28