It’s been a big week for transgender people in terms of government entities conversing and making decisions about civil rights issues that are important to the community. (Last week, the marriage equality win, and on Monday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it’d start housing transgender detainees in the facility that matches their gender identity.)
The Department of Justice filed a statement of interest yesterday in federal court, saying that, under Title IX, transgender students should be allowed to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with. This news comes from a press release from the American Civil Liberties Union, which is involved in a lawsuit in Virginia at the moment on behalf of a transgender high school student asking for those rights.
“There is a public interest in ensuring that all students, including transgender students, have the opportunity to learn in an environment free of sex discrimination,” the DOJ statement says.
There have been a few wins for local transgender students attending Sunnyside, Tucson Unified and Flowing Wells school districts. They have all added gender identity to the districts’ non-discrimination policies, which includes the bathroom dilemma. (I did a story on that last year while at Arizona Public Media.)
The problem is that there are no anti-discrimination laws at a federal level with the words sexual orientation or gender identity. And, at when it comes to states, most, including Arizona, don’t have these in place.
This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2015.
Lesbians do not want transgender males in their restrooms. We will need additional restrooms for each type. As the public schools empty out, you can convert classrooms to bathrooms for a wide variety of people so that each may have their own facility.
And you wonder why the US is falling behind?
Debbie T. yes they need their own bathroom and yes there are enough, but converting a classroom into a bathroom is totally ridiculous.
Debbie T I’m not sure we know how many types there are. We can’t make restrooms for everybody. The rest of you will have to go in the woods.
This bathroom stuff is ridiculous. I spend a lot of time in France and quite often both genders share the same bathrooms without the participants pointing and giggling. Grow up Americans, they’re only body parts.
I identify as an Attack Helicopter. I demand all schools create a hangar in their gyms where I can change my oil, at the cost to the taxpayer of course.
Really you know what really bugs me is. I was at the movies the other day and went to use the men’s room. And some large overweight women told me it was closed to men because there where girls using it. I said I don’t care I have to pee I pushed by her and peed at the urinal. She laughably called the cop who stands in the lobby who sited her and the other adult women for blocking the bathroom. Her response wad that she had the right to do it because there wasn’t enough stalls in the ladies room. I didn’t care that there were girls in there. So should I have called the police that there were girls in there. No of course not, but I suffer from being a Intelligent person who understands they just had to pee. I was just stupid for her to complain to the cop that I used the men’s room when there were girls in there. So now she has a nice 50 dollar ticket. It’s silly that because she’s a women she felt she could take over the men’s room because she wanted to.