Text #7: Transgender Students Win on Restroom Rights

A federal appellate ruling on Tuesday protecting the right of transgender students to use restrooms according to their gender identity is an important marker in a national debate that has prompted battles in courtrooms and legislatures across the country.

The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is the first federal court to affirm the Obama administration’s position on this question. The Department of Education and the Department of Justice have asserted in individual cases that barring transgender students from using restrooms and locker rooms based on their gender identity violates Title IX, a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.

The current case was brought in 2015 by a male transgender student against the school board in Gloucester County, Va., after it passed a measure barring him from using the boys’ restroom. Writing for the majority in the 2-to-1 ruling, Judge Henry Franklin Floyd found that the lower court did not give due deference to the federal government’s interpretation of Title IX when it ruled against the student, Gavin Grimm.

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The ruling is also the latest blow to a discriminatory law North Carolina passed last month, which mandated that people use public restrooms that match the gender on their birth certificate, regardless of their gender identity or appearance. North Carolina, which is also covered by the Fourth Circuit, is now bound to lose discrimination lawsuits filed by transgender students who would be forced to use the wrong restrooms.

The appeals court remanded the case back to Judge Robert Doumar of Federal District Court, instructing him to re-evaluate Mr. Grimm’s request for a preliminary injunction. Judge Doumar, who spoke dismissively about gender identity when he heard the case last year, should swiftly grant Mr. Grimm the injunction he should have gotten months ago.The North Carolina law, which also prohibits cities from passing anti-discrimination laws to protect gay and transgender people, has already set off a strong backlash from the private sector, educators and religious leaders. This week’s ruling gives Gov. Pat McCrory and North Carolina lawmakers another compelling reason to repeal the law.

It can be easy to forget that these debates are about personal dignity. Mr. Grimm was remarkably clearheaded and eloquent at a school board meeting in 2014 when he defended his right to use the boys’ room. Since the school board rejected his plea, Mr. Grimm has sought to get through the school day without using the restroom at all. When he must, Mr. Grimm, a high school junior, uses the nurse’s restroom, an alternative he understandably finds humiliating and stigmatizing. He’s endured that indignity long enough.

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD for the NY Times                                                                  APRIL 20, 2016

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Respond:  

Do you agree with the ruling in this case?  

What are the arguments for and against allowing transgender students to use the bathroom they most identify with?

Do you think this is a big step for America in terms of seeing transgender people's fight for equal rights as more of a "civil right"?

Text #6: Weight of the world: Four decades of spreading global obesity, in 2 animated maps

The world is growing ever fatter.

In 1975, the underweight outnumbered the obese more than 2 to 1 around the globe. But the tables had turned by 2014, according to a new study of obesity rates in much of the world: There are now more obese people than underweight people on Earth.

“The number of people across the globe whose weight poses a serious threat to their health is greater than ever before,” Majid Ezzati, a professor at Imperial College London and lead author of the study, said in a statement. The study was published in the Lancet.

For men, the obesity rate more than tripled over the past four decades, rising from just over 3 percent to nearly 11 percent. Among women, the rate more than doubled, rising from more than 6 percent to nearly 15 percent.

Ezzati collaborated with more than 700 public health experts around the world to identify and collect obesity estimates for most countries from 1975 to 2014. He directs that network of experts, known as the Non-Communicable Diseases Risk Factor Collaboration, or NCD-RisC. The estimates are based on body-mass index values.

If the global trend continues, Ezzati and his colleagues estimate, nearly 18 percent of men and 21 percent of women will be obese by 2025.

Here’s what the four-decade spread of obesity looks like for men and women, according to images of the interactive maps he and his collaborators created:

(NCD-RisC)

(NCD-RisC)

Roughly one in three obese men call either China or the United States home, while those two countries are home to about one in four obese women.

New USDA guidelines say to cut down on sugar and sal

 

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But few countries were immune to the four-decade rise in obesity. As the charts below show, nearly every region of the world saw rates increase for both sexes.

Obesity among men, regionally. (NCD-RisC)

Obesity among women, regionally. (NCD-RisC)

To Ezzati and his colleagues, the implications of their research are clear.

“Although it is reassuring that the number of underweight individuals has decreased over the last four decades, global obesity has reached crisis point,” he said. “We hope these findings create an imperative to shift responsibility from the individual to Governments, and to develop and implement policies to address obesity.”

Source:  The Washington Post

By Niraj Chokshi April 4, 2016 at 7:00 AM

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Ideas to consider in your response:

- What is the connection between the number of people being underweight decreasing and the number of people who are overweight increasing?

- What do the maps and charts in this piece show us?

- Who do you think is responsible for "fixing" our country's obesity epidemic?  The government or individuals?