Black leaders slammed President Barack Obama’s order that men who claim to be female must be allowed to shower with normal women and girls, and also his claim that federal support for transgenders and “gender identity” is just like the campaign to win equal civil rights for African-Americans.

The “ridiculous transgender/civil rights movement comparison [is” insulting and disrespectful,” said Nadra Enzi, a New Orleans anti-crime activist.

Once again the Black experience is hijacked by individuals whose contempt and desperation is obvious! Middle- and upper-income Whites in search of artificial oppressed person status can do so without using our history to prop up delusional defenses.

“Comparing gender dysphoria to innate characteristics such as race is a bridge too far for scientific-minded individuals, but not for the organized left,” said Stacey Washington, Emmy-nominated TV personality and talk show host on KFTK 97.1 FM in St. Louis. “The idea that a mentally ill person should assume the mantle of civil rights so hard-fought and won by black Americans is insulting.”

On May 9, for example, Obama’s deputy, Attorney General Loretta Lynch blasted a North Carolina law that affirms single-sex bathrooms, but which also lets people use opposite-sex bathrooms after they go through a sex-change operation.

This is not the first time that we have seen discriminatory responses to historic moments of progress for our nation. We saw it in the Jim Crow laws that followed the Emancipation Proclamation … State-sanctioned discrimination never looks good in hindsight. It was not so very long ago that states, including North Carolina, had signs above restrooms, water fountains and on public accommodations keeping people out based upon a distinction without a difference. We have moved beyond those dark days, but not without pain and suffering and an ongoing fight to keep moving forward.

Washington and Hicks are members of Project 21, a coalition of black leaders organized by the National Center for Public Policy Research.

“As a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, who happens to be Black by His design, I am thoroughly outraged that Obama would think he could even suggest, no less implement, such madness as ‘gender identity’ and ‘transgender rights.'” said Reverend Steven Louis Craft. “We in this nation are under satanic attack when people cannot even discern that there are only two sexes, male and female.”

“Such a move will destroy our schools as our children and grandchildren will be intimidated and confused,” said Emery McClendon. “The focus in our learning institutions shout be on the three ‘R’s, and on preparing our children for adulthood, the job market, and higher learning … schools are already failing, and this move will place our education system at risk of a collapse.”

“It is important that all of this liberal and leftist angst and claims of victimization be put in a proper context,” California political analyst Joe Hicks said. “Only 0.3 percent of the nation’s population identifies as transgender,” he said, adding that “the entire LGBT population is estimated to be 3.4 percent.”

Project 21 was founded in 1992. It is led by frequent television pundit Cherylyn Harley LeBon and by constitutional law professor Horace Cooper.

Project 21 members include Niger Innes, Dr. Day Gardner, president of the National Black Pro-Life Union, pro-life leader Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, and national syndicated columnist Deroy Murdock.