Last month the Obama administration issued a letter to every public school district in the nation informing them that they should be allowing transgender students to use whichever bathroom they feel corresponds to their gender identity. The letter also went on to warn those school districts that failing to do so could bring about a loss of federal aid or lawsuits.
Now President Obama has opened up about what influenced his administration’s decision on the bathroom issue: Scripture.
Responding to a question at a town hall in Elkhart, Indiana, about why he decided to make it such an issue, Obama said the issue came to him and when it did, he let his religious faith guide his response.
“I have profound respect for everybody’s religious beliefs on this. But they’re in public school. The question is, how do we just make sure that children are treated with kindness? That’s all,” he said.
“My reading of scripture tells me that that golden rule is pretty high up there in terms of my Christian belief,” he continued. “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."