Pat McCrory Says Obama Is Overreaching With His Trans Letter. Here's Why He's Wrong.

Impact

On Friday, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory slammed the Obama administration's letter to public schools regarding transgender students' use of bathrooms. McCrory called it a "massive executive branch overreach." 

On his website, McCrory claimed that the administration's edict "changes generations of gender etiquette and privacy norms, which parents, children and employees have expected in the most personal and private settings of their everyday lives."

Sent by the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice, the administration's letter reminded school officials that the 1972 Title IX law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of a student's sex in public schools, applies to transgender students looking to use the restroom in peace. 

Carolyn Kaster/AP

In his complaint, McCrory said that the directive "clearly oversteps constitutional authority" and that the "federal government does not have the authority to be the final arbiter." 

However, McCrory may be forgetting a grade school social studies lesson

The U.S. government has three branches: the legislative branch, which makes laws, the executive branch, which carries them out and the judicial branch, which evaluates them.

Congress passed Title IX into law in 1972. By enforcing it, President Obama is ensuring that U.S. citizens abide by the law. 

Kids.gov

In his statement, McCrory also shows that he has neglected to read any polls in a long time. 

"Most Americans, including this governor, believe that government is searching for a solution to a problem that has yet to be defined," McCrory writes. 

However, according to a recent CNN poll, 57% of Americans don't agree with legislation like North Carolina's controversial HB2, which requires people to use public restrooms that align with their gender as assigned at birth. Given that North Carolina's Congress convened a special session to pass HB2 to supersede a Charlotte ordinance protecting transgender people, McCrory shouldn't be surprised that the federal government stepped in to overrule him.