Earlier this month, we discussed the Milford, New Hampshire school district where administrators had banned the use of urinals in the boys’ bathrooms. This bizarre decision was touted as a “compromise” by the board members who approved it. It was yet another case of a school refusing to allow supposedly transgender students into the facilities designated for kids based on their actual sex. How closing the urinals was seen as a “compromise” was never explained, but the school quickly received blowback from both sides. Parents called to complain and dozens of students engaged in a walkout for several days. Less than a week later, the school turned around this week and reopened the urinals. (Boston Globe)

What’s not being made clear in this report is whether the board rescinded the entire policy change made at the original February 6 meeting or just the closing of the urinals. The school had previously allowed trans students to use the bathrooms aligned with their “identity” rather than their actual sex. If the entire policy was revoked, then they have caved completely to the trans enablers. If it was just the decision about the urinals, then sanity has prevailed.

It seems as if the board should be looking to the state legislature which is attempting to find some sort of actual compromise that would address the transgender social contagion currently sweeping the nation. They ban discrimination based on “gender identity” in housing, employment and public accommodations. But the lawmakers are currently working on an amendment that would allow “differentiating between the male and female sexes in athletic competitions, criminal incarceration, or places of intimate privacy.”

That sounds about as close to a reasonable compromise as we’re likely to see. Of course, that wording will only infuriate the trans lobby because it would codify into state law a recognition of “the male and female sexes,” so you can expect the howling to continue. But in reality, it would line up fairly well with the sane majority of the nation.

I don’t know many rational adults who really care what someone calls themselves or wants to dictate how they dress. Nobody needs to lose their job over such things or be barred from public spaces. But the rest of the country also has rights in terms of their speech and privacy, particularly, as the New Hampshire legislature puts it, “in places of intimate privacy.” As long as you’re not insisting on the right to wreck girls’ and women’s competitive sports or putting men in women’s prisons, you probably aren’t going to get too much pushback. But when you start dragging children into it, the pitchforks and torches will be arriving shortly, believe me.

We’ll keep an eye on the developing situation in the Milford school district. It may turn out to be a microcosm of the larger national debate that is currently unfolding. And it may be a while before the Supreme Court gets a chance to weigh in on this once and for all, so it could turn out to be an important bellwether.