For schoolkids, bathrooms can be a warzone, and as this student says, making rules about which ones they can and can’t visit are only going to make it worse.
Out of the seven-hour school day, I spend an average of two minutes in the bathroom. That’s it. Business as usual. No one bats an eye.
Just an hour away from where I live, in Frankfort, Kentucky, my business and the business of every other transgender student attending a public school is not as usual. In fact, it’s under scrutiny by a drafted bill titled the Kentucky Student Privacy Act.
The Kentucky Student Privacy Act, as proposed by Kentucky State Sen. C.B. Embry, would deny access to restrooms, locker rooms and other gender-specific spaces to students who do not identify with the gender assigned to them at birth. The act also suggests “compromises” with transgender students who fit these circumstances. In this case, the transgender student would have to use a unisex facility, which many schools do not have, or use the faculty restrooms.
To give a student perspective on this situation: The only private restroom space in my own school building is set away from general classroom areas and separated by two floors from most of my classes. The two minutes I take out of changing classes or instructional time for going about my business would turn into a longer period, taking a chunk out of my academic and social time. And along with that — it would create embarrassment and less affirmation for my gender. While assigned female at birth, I identify as male, express this identity and go along with my day as any other guy. The prospect of having to go out of the way to take special action due to private anatomy (hence the word “private”) is segregation.
The Kentucky Student Privacy Act creates another problem, even a witch-hunt of sorts. The bill states in Section 3, #4 (a): A student encountering a person of the opposite biological sex shall have a private cause of action against the school if school personnel:
1. Gave the person encountered permission to use facilities of the opposite biological sex; or
2. Failed to take reasonable steps to prohibit the person encountered from using facilities designated for use by the opposite biological sex.
Along with these stipulations, the student who encountered the transgender individual could take their case to a local circuit court and receive $2500 of so-called “compensation” from the school “for all psychological, emotional and physical harm suffered” (Section 2, #3 [b]) as quoted in Sen. Embry’s bill.
Now, when I and many other out transgender individuals use the restroom, we are there to take care of our business wherever we deem comfortable for our identities and expression. We’re just like everyone else. And to be honest, I want to be out of the restroom as soon as I can to continue my school day and to avoid any problems with the few transphobic individuals in school who may know my history and ask intrusive questions. (Unfortunately, that has happened.)
Read more: Trans healthcare in America
As long as private stalls are available, absolutely no one should suffer from “harm” in the presence of a transgender person unless the person creates a threatening or harmful situation for the other people in the facility. That’s bullying, and can come from anyone of any identity. As well as this, one would have to take some pretty inappropriate measures in order to figure out if the person using the restroom is in fact transgender. That’s that.
But why was the compensational aspect introduced? That’s where the witch-hunt analogy is brought into play. Misinformed and/or transphobic students who encounter a person who they have heard is transgender could easily cook up a plot for receiving their “rightful compensation,” as proposed in Sen. Embry’s bill.
It’s one thing for a school to offer private facilities for students who identify as gender-neutral or are not comfortable using male- or female-designated facilities because of their gender identity — but to force all transgender students to do so is, in fact, a definite breach in privacy for students wishing to remain stealth and affirmed in their identity. So much for an act with the word “privacy” plastered on it.
On a positive note, several schools and governments around the nation (and the world, for that matter) have adopted a number of policies to allow transgender students to use the restrooms, locker rooms and even join sports teams that correspond with their gender identities, not their sex assigned at birth.
And so far, in light of California’s “School Success and Opportunity Act,” affected in January 2014, problems of “embarrassment, shame and psychological injury to students” have yet to be reported with regards to transgender students using these facilities, unlike the outcomes predicted in Sen. Embry’s proposed bill. We have a lot of catching up to do.
Thanks to the marginalisation of and lack of education about transgender individuals (as shown by the proposed bill), as well as sensationalised media headlines that loom around transgender topics, it’s tough to feel at ease. As a transgender teen who has risked losing friends and others close to me, struggled with “passing” and even struggled with the transition to use the facilities in accordance with my identity without worry or question, I want to feel equal to my peers. And I sure don’t wish to have my authenticity judged through government measures.
Read more: Teaching kids what it means to be transgender
Because of this, I wish to continue standing alongside anyone who is or may be subjected to injustice of this kind from their own school systems or government. To lend even more help, Kentucky has many groups that advocate for LGBT+ identified students through educating the public and lobbying for positive government action. These include Fairness Campaign, GLSEN’s Bluegrass chapter and the ACLU of Kentucky. From my own work with GLSEN and the connections I’ve built with these groups, I am assured that these groups will not halt efforts until justice and fair treatment is ensured for all.
So, my statement to Sen. C.B. Embry and to those in support of the proposed bill? The only “declaration of emergency” here is that laws to segregate transgender students are taking precedence over respectful and enumerated policies that would truly keep LGBT+ youth safe and welcome in the school environment. And lastly: How we go about our business is none of yours.
This post originally appeared on The Huffington Post and is republished here with permission.
Top Comments
This makes out that non trans gender people are making it a big deal who uses what toilet (and that is true) but it is also the case that trans gender people are equally making a big deal over the fact that they want to use a specific toilet and not the other one.
Look I have no problem with a man who wants to dress like a woman (and yes I know the whole dress thing is a social construct) but I actually take offensive when it gets to the stage that a man decides he is a woman just because he says so and vice versa, and therefore I have to treat him like a woman. The reality is I was born with a vagina he wasn't, I get periods he has never had to put up with that. Equally I'm not going to call myself a man which I think is insulting to men because I don't know what is like to have a penis or get blue balls or whatever.
As I say I don't mind if someone wants to dress like a woman, go as far as having a sex change etc, if this makes them happy good for them, but I draw the line where I am expected to call them a woman, share a woman's toilet with them etc simply because they have "decided" they are a woman.
I don't like unisex toilets, I prefer to use an all female bathroom, i feel uncomfortable going to the toilet in the presence of the opposite sex. Perhaps that makes me a prude, but I can't be the only one because otherwise all toilets would be unisex. In any case even if you think I am being prudish and petty by insisting only women use a female toilet, transgender people are being equally petty by insisting that their world is going to cave in if they use the toilet of their birth sex.
Hear hear. There are many psychiatrists who believe that transgender is a mental illness, just as others don't agree with this assessment. I find it somewhat surreal that it is now considered normal to give children as young as 12 hormones to suppress hormonal growth and to cut off a man's penis because he feels that he is a woman.
If you have a penis, go to the men's loo. If you have a vagina, use the womens.
To Ms Anon (which is quite telling that you don't even want to put your name to your comments . . . ). You really have zero understanding of gender. No one 'decides' to be male or female. You just are. Unfortunately, whether it be due to genetics (and yes there actually are women who are XY and others who are XXY) or due to exposure to varying levels of testosterone during conception, there are a number of people whose bodies fail to represent the gender they are.
Thankfully due to modern medicine this can now be pretty much fixed and their bodies corrected to match their innate gender. Note 'innate' - not something they have 'decided' or 'chosen'.
You have even made the point against your own objection. If a person who is female (born unfortunately with the wrong 'bits' and now corrected) should definitely not be made to go to the men's toilets. Just as you would rightfully not want to.
Please Susan - if you are going to check just to make sure I have a vagina . . please at least give me a warning before looking under the stall.
A really well written article Casey. At my previous school the transgender students were permitted to use staff amenities, however my current school has no policy in place that I am aware of.
Good luck to you and your cause.