Local Democrats Struggle with Reality
Why are local Democrats and liberals so upset with a simple notion of ensuring biological females and biological males remain separate where they might be seen in various states of undress? It boggles the mind that any parent, educator, or logical and sane adult would oppose something so basic and fundamentally sensible – especially where minors & minor teenagers are involved. I mean, really… how many fathers or mothers want their minor daughters taking a shower around biological male teenagers?
Why are leftists so fixated on sexuality and gender in our education system and not education? Shouldn’t they be more upset about the reading and math scores of local students over which locker room children take their clothes off in? Where are the priorities of these people?
In case you didn’t know, the years of leftist policy has not yielded stellar results. Alpena HS in 2022 was Ranked 245 in Michigan and 7151 in the US. (source) • (archive)
Michigan was ranked 41 of 50 states. (source) • (archive)
Grim.
The worst of the worst. Now Democrats want to finish what they started?
Priorities, people. Please. Leftist policy has BROKEN our schools. Let’s start with some basic and simple common sense. Proper and appropriate biological gender in locker rooms and restrooms is basic common sense. It is not a political agenda. Obviously…
Leftists are reeling at the result of their own actions.
It seems that after years of dominating public school policy by hiding behind non-partisan nature of BOE elections, local Alpena County Democrats are grappling with several realities:
- Conservative voters are the majority here and across the nation (and are also waking up to their schemes).
- Conservative voters and board members desire education to be simply about education.
- Conservatives wish to properly protect the privacy rights of children & teens – most notably – the rights of young women. Given their “minor” status, kids and teens need someone to stand up for them. If left unchecked, the demagogic leftist trans political ideology would ruin women’s rights in its attempts to dangerously and detrimentally normalize the mental illness of gender dysphoria; instead of properly treating it.
- Finally, they are grappling with their lack of understanding regarding The Supremacy Clause.
Being a minority means that the majority rules. This is basic Democracy.
The latest election is a stark slap in the face to the left and their beliefs that they are the majority. To know that their radical debauched policies lost them both the electoral college and the popular vote must be a hard pill to swallow. It is no wonder our local Democrats are so rabidly attacking good, sensible, and logical people who have the courage to stand up to their insane political and sexually focused ideology. Moreover, it is becoming blatantly clear why Michigan’s Democrat dominated schools rank in the bottom percentiles in the US (despite education taking up nearly 50% of our bloated budget). (source) • (archive)
Some basic numbers: 63.61% of Alpena residents voted for the Republican Presidential candidate in 2024. Only 34.02% chose to vote Democrat. That is a 2/3rds majority for the conservative leaning GOP voters. This makes Democrat ideology the stark and notable minority in the county. Add in the fact that throughout the entire County government, there is but one Democrat elected. Why on the earth do they believe that their voice is that of the majority somehow? Under what fantastical notion do they believe they speak for the “will of the county”? Moreover, why are school officials pandering to the minority? It is time for the will of the people to be represented! (data source) • (archive) (Alpena elected county commissioners source) • (archive)
Here is what we’re up against…
Their desperation is obvious and transparent.
Truth is, their attacks and tactics are nothing more than bullying and their recent behavior at board meetings are clearly intended to intimidate the conservative leaders into standing down and acquiescing to the will of the super-minority. Credit where its due, however… Democrats are MUCH better about attending these meetings than the “live-and-let-live” conservatives.
The liberal dominance at APS meetings does need to change. The conservatives in Alpena County need to start attending these meetings in greater numbers or your elected leaders are at risk of being overwhelmed by the noise and clamor of those who believe that conservatives should be in “assisted living” or “mental health facility” (this was on a Fielder for NE Michigan post regarding Anti-Furry legislation in Texas). Shows you what they think about conservatives who simply want education to be about education. How soon we forget, Hitler used similar rhetoric & propaganda. (archive)
The big question: Are Alpena conservatives going to let the 33% out work and outwit them? Time will tell. Local liberals are tenacious and hard-working if nothing else…
In their attempt to confound truth, as usual, they are projecting their inability to discern truth from fiction along with their desire to advance their political ideologies. Conservatives simply wish to return to a basic sane principle concentrating on the education of students. While liberals want to allow boys wearing dresses to be able to choose to go into girl’s locker rooms instead of that which is biologically proper.
School officials who are not standing up for equal application of meeting rules need to be held accountable.
At the most recent meeting, those officials who allowed the gallery to denigrate to a wild & unruly state should be held responsible. When the tables were reversed, they absolutely applied the rules to conservatives who spoke out in truth. Now, when current board members are attempting to implement legally sound and responsible policy, they are allowing leftists in attendance to intimidate and personally call out members. This is unconscionable.
In defense of legally sound actions:
To dismiss the notion that APS following federal guidance here is the legally sound path to follow – common sense and morality aside. This is a basic legal assessment provided by legal scholars concerning this instance and the Supremacy Clause. Federal Law, where a conflict exists, will supersede State Law. The uncomfortable truth for Alpena liberals is that Title IX does, in fact preempt Michigan’s Elliot-Larsen Act.
Here is the legal assessment:
MWR 4/28/2025
Alpena’s Proposed “Student Physical Privacy Policy”
Question: Does Title IX preempt Michigan’s Elliot-Larsen Act? Answer: Yes.
Title IX:
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. Title IX states:
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance…. 20 USC 1681(a) (emphasis added).
Neither Title IX nor the applicable federal rules and regulations define “sex” and do not explicitly include protection from discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. The Title IX Regulations do not extend protections to transgender students in areas like athletics, restrooms, or other sex-segregated activities.
Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act:
In 2023, Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (“ELCRA”) was amended to include protection for “gender identity or expression” and declares that:
[T]he full and equal utilization of public accommodations, public service, and educational facilities without discrimination because of . . . sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression . . . is recognized and declared to be a civil right. MCL 37.2012(1).
Under the ELCRA, Gender identity or expression means:
having or being perceived as having a gender- related self-identity or expression whether or not associated with an individual’s assigned sex at birth. MCL 37.2013(f).
In contrast to the federal Title IX law, rules and regulations, Michigan state law does provide protection based on gender identity.
Preemption of State Law:
Federal Regulations, at 34 CFR 106.6(b), state that schools must comply with Title IX’s requirements even if these requirements conflict with state law, and schools cannot have policies or practices that discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
34 CFR 106.6(b) provides:
(b) Effect of State or local law or other requirements. The obligation to comply with Title IX and this part is not obviated or alleviated by any State or local law or other requirement that conflicts with Title IX or this part.
Therefore, Title IX’s prohibition of sex discrimination requirements preempts Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act’s protections for “gender identity or expression” in “educational facilities.”
Timeline of Implementation of Title IX Regulations Related to Sex Discrimination Based on Gender Identity
As of February 4, 2025, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights will enforce Title IX under the provisions of the Trump Administration’s 2020 Title IX Final Rule (“2020 Title IX Rule”), rather than the Biden Administration’s 2024 Title IX Final Rule (“2024 Title IX Rule”). The 2020 Rule, while generally prohibiting sex-based discrimination, does not explicitly include gender identity or sexual orientation within the definition of “sex” for the purpose of discrimination.
Below is a timeline of how the Department of Education reached its decision to enforce the 2020 Title IX Rule rather than the 2024 Title IX Rule’s prohibition of sex discrimination based on gender identity.
8/1/2024: The Biden Administration released the 2024 Title IX Rule, which defined sex discrimination to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. 34 CFR 106.2(2024). The 2024 Final Rule was based, in part, on the US Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, 590 US 644, 651-652 (2020), which held that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is prohibited sex discrimination. The 2024 Title IX Rule specifically provided that schools may not separate or treat any person differently based on sex in a manner that subjects them to “more than de minimis harm.” 34 CFR 106.31(a)(2)(2024). Under the 2024 Title IX Rule, transgender bathroom bans were prohibited because such bans on the use of school facilities consistent with a student’s or educator’s gender identity cause more than de minimis harm.
1/9/2025: On January 9, 2025, a Kentucky federal district court issued a decision, Tennessee v. Cardona, No. 24-0072-DCR, 2025 WL 63795, at *6 (E.D. Ky. Jan. 9, 2025), immediately vacating the 2024 Title IX Rule nationwide. No portion of the 2024 Title IX regulations are effective in any jurisdiction. An appeal was filed on March 12, 2025, see Tennessee v McMahon, No. 25-5205 (6th Cir. Mar 12, 2025).
1/20/2025: President Trump issued an Executive Order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” (“Defending Women Executive Order”) announcing the Trump Administration’s policy “to recognize two sexes, male and female” and that “[t]hese sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.” The Defending Women Executive Order defines the term “sex” as referring to someone’s “immutable biological classification.” It also directs the Attorney General to issue guidance to agencies to address the prior Administration’s “misapplication of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock . . . to sex-based distinctions in agency activities.”
1/29/2025: President Trump issued an Executive Order, “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” (“Gender Identity Executive Order”) announcing the Trump Administration’s policy to withhold federal funding from schools that engage in illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including based on gender ideology and the “social transition” of a minor student. “Social transition” is defined as “the process of adopting a ‘gender identity’ or ‘gender marker’ that differs from a person’s sex,” including “use of intimate facilities and accommodations such as bathrooms or locker rooms specifically designated for persons of the opposite sex….”
2/4/2025: The Department of Education announced that the agency would enforce Title IX consistent with the Defending Women Executive Order, 1/20/2025, and the Tennessee v Cordona 1/9/2025 opinion. The Department of Education will enforce the Trump Administration’s 2020 Title IX Rule, effectively removing the protections for transgender students that were part of the Biden Administration’s 2024 Title IX Rule.
Following is a draft of the policy which the conservative majority APS BOE wishes to implement. It is similar to that which neighboring Fairview schools has implemented (which is why Fairview appears in the text). When reading, ask yourself this: ”Why would any sane person oppose this?”. Why are liberals throwing a temper tantrum like a spoiled child over something that is so fundamental and simply proper?
5900 – STUDENT PHYSICAL PRIVACY POLICY
In recognition of students’ right to physical privacy, the need to foster a mentally healthy safe environment for all students and maintain school discipline, Fairview Area Schools enacts the following policy regarding student use of restrooms, locker rooms, shower facilities, and other shared places typically excluded by biological sex.
DEFINITIONS
“Biological sex” means the biological condition of being male or female as determined at birth based on physical differences, or, when necessary, at the chromosomal level.
POLICY
Use of School Facilities
Student restrooms, locker rooms, and showers that are designated for one (1) biological sex shall only be used by members of that biological sex.
In any other school facilities or settings where a student may be in a state of undress in the presence of other students (i.e., changing costumes during school theatrical productions, etc.), school personnel shall provide separate, private areas designated for use by students based on their biological sex.
Accommodation of Biological Sex Non-Conforming Students
Parents asserting their child’s gender differs from their biological sex shall be provided with the best available accommodation meeting their child’s needs; however, that shall not include access to the school restroom, locker room, shower of their opposite biological sex, or shared rooms during field trips with the opposite sex. Such accommodations may include, but are not limited to: access to a uni-sex restroom; or controlled use of a faculty restroom, locker room, or shower.
(Editor’s note: Copy of above policy we received had various stages of edits within. This version has been amended pursuant to what appeared to be the most current & complete version and may not reflect any final version if/when adopted by the APS BOE.)
What or who is behind this liberal frenzy?
If you didn’t attend, here is the official video of latest meeting. Note that the gallery is pretty full. Most of them are liberal activists. Do local liberals really care that much? Or are they perhaps a part of the ActBlue fraud that is coming to light? If not, maybe they are funded by shadow organizations like those that Soros funds? Is there a silent hand behind the Democrat frenzy here in Alpena? Hard telling. But they are fighting hard, even if they aren’t profiting from it.
To the nay-sayers who believe “that couldn’t happen here”, there are many documented examples nationwide of leftist organizational fraud and dark money funding of “activists”. It happens on both sides, but the globalists are spending much more money and effort on leftist causes to further their agenda. It is so egregious, even the “mainstream” media can’t ignore it…
- TownHall Article on ActBlue Fraud.
- CNBC Article on Soros Dumping Money into “Non-Profits”.
- AP News Reports ‘George Soros funds movements to disrupt communities’.
- Paxton criminal referral to DOJ concerning widespread ActBlue fraudulent donation practices.
- Daily Signal: Elderly Democrats Say Donations Made in Their Names Aren’t Genuine.
- WND: Dem fundraising machine accused of money laundering.
There are a lot of questions. We the People are the answer!
Good people need to stand up and support the people we elected. Or else, the conservative majority on the APS Board stands at very real risk of being overwhelmed by the intimidation and bullying tactics of those who represent less than 35% of the electorate in Alpena County. It happened in Onaway School District. It can happen in Alpena too. Do not take anything for granted!
Furthermore, school administration should be held accountable to the people who pay them, and to the rules they have in place. They certainly have no problem in enforcing rules when it is a conservative “breaking” them. The school administration should also respect Federal Law and the Supremacy Clause to which we are all beholden.
If the rules and laws are not to your liking, you are welcome to resign. It is the right thing to do.
Alpena voters, the time is now. The fight to reclaim decency in our schools has just begun. The job must now be finished! All must stand up and help.
The opinions above are that of the author, Jeffrey Dobbs, a guest writer and partner to this movement to restore excellence in education, decency, and simple common sense to our public schools.
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