导读:美国11个州联合在得克萨斯州北区的美国地区法院提起诉讼,试图阻止奥巴马政府关于允许跨性别学生按“心理性别”如厕的指令实施。
A federal judge in Texas has temporarily blocked an Obama administration directive meant to expand bathroom access for transgender students in the nation’s public schools, the latest development in an ongoing battle pitting the federal government and LGBT advocates against those who believe the policy violates student privacy and infringes on states’ rights.
近日,一位来自美国德克萨斯州的联邦法官决议暂时停止执行关于奥巴马当局政府为了确保跨性别学生的权利,规定在公立学校允许其选择浴室的法令。这成为了此前在联邦政府以及同性恋支持者与那些认为这条法令侵犯了学生的隐私权同时也破坏了州政府权利的人们之间爆发的舆论战的最新进展。
Texas and a dozen other states sued in an attempt to block the federal directive shortly after it was released in May, and in a 38-page opinion issued Sunday, Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas temporarily prohibited the federal government from enforcing it as that lawsuit proceeds. The Obama administration has said that schools must allow transgender students to use the bathrooms and school facilities that match their gender identity, citing it as a civil rights issue protected under the federal sex-discrimination law known as Title IX.
此前在五月份的一个周日公布长达38页的法令后不久,德克萨斯州和其它几个州就尝试进行上诉以阻止这条法令的实行,由于需要走诉讼流程,因此来自德克萨斯北部的联邦法官决定暂时停止此项法令的执行。奥巴马政府称,公立学校必须允许跨性别学生自由使用符合其性别取向的浴室以及其他学校设施,这被视为联邦政府性别歧视法案(被称为“第九法案”)中一项受保护的权利。
The states argued that the federal government had overstepped its authority and effectively issued new regulations for Title IX without going through the proper federal rule-writing process. Opponents of the policy have argued that it abridges student privacy rights and potentially puts them at risk in the assumed safe-spaces of single-sex bathrooms.
反对这项法令的州政府称,联邦政府颁布此法令已经超出自身的职权范围,而且新出台的“第九法案”中法令没有按正规的联邦立法流程。同时,反对者声称此项法令也忽视了学生的隐私权,使本应为同一性别使用者的浴室等公共设施处于危险境地,
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing a transgender student in Virginia in a case that so far as brought a higher court ruling from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and might make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Sunday’s ruling should not affect any ongoing cases about transgender rights.
此前,关于一位来自弗吉尼亚的跨性别学生的案件已经被从原来第四巡回上诉法庭移交至美国最高法庭进行审理。为此位学生进行辩护的美国民权联盟称周日颁布的这条法令不应影响任何一件目前正在审理的关于跨性别者权利的案件。
The defendants in that case, Virginia’s Gloucester County School Board, plan to ask the Supreme Court to review the case. It is not clear whether the Supreme Court will agree to hear it, but earlier this month, the high court did grant the school district’s request on a separate issue: The district does not have to allow Grimm to use the boys’ bathroom during the upcoming school year.
而此案的被告,弗吉尼亚的格洛斯特公立学校董事会计划向最高法庭提出重新审理此案件的请求。目前并不清楚最高法院是否会同意该请求,但是在上个月,最高法院同意了校方关于“学校在下一学年不必允许Grimm使用男生浴室”的请求。
O’Connor, the Texas judge, alluded to the prospect of a Supreme Court decision on the issue, writing in his decision Sunday that “a Supreme Court in the near future may obviate the issues in this lawsuit.”
来自德克萨斯州的O’Connor法官在周日的决议中称:“最高法院在不久的将来也许会排除这一问题”,似乎在暗示最高法院关于此案的最终裁决。