College takes action on trans promotions after parents get warned

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The University of North Dakota, serving and drawing students from a state that is about one-quarter Catholic, has dropped plans for its transgender promotions after parents in the state were warned about its agenda by Catholic bishops.

The policy under development was similar to other colleges, universities and even public schools that choose to promote the transgender ideology.

It would have made special allowances for those students identifying as transgender to use the facilities, such as restrooms and locker rooms, of the gender they claimed to be.

It also would impose a speech requirement on others, demanding that they address those students by the pronouns they select.

Also, it would allow boys to join sororities and girls to join fraternities if they so identified and chose to do that.

The North Dakota Catholic Conference had expressed its opposition to the agenda, and recently took its advice directly to parents, telling them they need to consider “the campus environment and whether it is conducive or hostile to not only the Catholic faith but also the truth about the human person.”

In fact, being male or female is in the human body down to the DNA level and cannot be changed.

School managers abruptly decided to drop their plans.

In a statement from the school president, Andrew Armacost, they said, “As a result of recent discussions, the university will cease its work on the draft policy and will not implement it.”

The statement said the discussions uncovered “concerns both about freedom of speech and religious exercise and expression.”

The school said, “The campus-wide committee that drafted this policy identified relevant laws and state policies and assembled them into a single, accessible document that highlights protections already in place. Further, the committee’s intent was to bring a sense of humanity to a highly marginalized group.”

But the statement said there was “uncertainty” about how to force people to use a student’s chosen pronoun, as well as “the consequence of not following this guidance and the impact on freedom of speech and religious exercise and expression.”

The statement concluded that existing nondiscrimination requirements already cover the “areas of gender identity and sexual orientation.”

And they are “consistent with federal and state law,” the president said.

The letter sent to Catholics pointed out, “Unfortunately, colleges and universities across the nation are enacting policies that not only impose flawed ideologies on students but also restrict their rights to free speech and religion.”

The letter was from Christopher Dobson, the general counsel for the North Dakota Catholic Conference, and it was sent on behalf of the two Catholic bishops in North Dakota.

It warned, “The proposed policy even requires student organizations to use preferred pronouns, accept expressed genders, and reject binary understandings of gender even if doing so conflicted with their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

Armacost initially reacted with the comment that the letter “yielded widespread confusion and misinterpretation among many people in the community,” but within days had scrapped the plan.

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