Under a sweeping directive issued by the Massachusetts Department of Education, boys and girls who identify as the opposite sex are now allowed to use whichever school bathroom and locker room they feel most comfortable in, and schools are discouraged from using gender-based clothes and from conducting gender-based practices such as lining up children based on their sex, Baptist Press reports. The 11-page directive to the state's public schools was issued Feb. 15, supposedly in light of a new Massachusetts law that adds "gender identity" to the state's nondiscrimination code. Traditional groups argue the new law did not require such a wide-sweeping directive from the education department, but say it demonstrates the repercussions of passing any law that adds gender identity to state non-discrimination policies. "Transgenderism is only part of what same-sex marriage is plowing the way for," said Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family. Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, says the new policy puts students -- particularly girls -- in harm's way: "The School Commissioner's first duty is to protect all students ... not endanger them. The overriding issue with this new policy is that opening girls' bathrooms to boys is an invasion of privacy and a threat to all students' safety."
