Two leading Catholics have denounced President Obama's instructions asking public schools to allow restroom and locker room use on the basis of gender identity rather than sex at birth.
Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo and Archbishop George Lucas, who are both committee chairmen of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a statement.
It read: "The guidance issued May 13 by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education that treats 'a student's gender identity as the student's sex' is deeply disturbing.
"The guidance fails to address a number of important concerns and contradicts a basic understanding of human formation so well expressed by Pope Francis: that 'the young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created.' "
The Washington Post has reported that the bishops went on to say that no student should feel unsafe.
Barak Obama's order told schools about how they could regulate bathrooms and locker rooms for transgender students and students that do not fit neatly into male or female categories.
It encourages regulating bathrooms on the basis of gender identity and installing privacy curtains in changing rooms.
The guidelines were published by the White House following a big debate that began when North Carolina passed a law regulating public facilities on the basis of sex.
The U.S. Department of Justice is suing North Carolina saying that this legislation violates federal civil rights law.
