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Explore and Focus Your Cultural Lens Debate: Should Transgender…
Explore and Focus Your Cultural Lens
Debate: Should Transgender Students Be Able to Use the Bathroom That Matches Their Gender?
We have a long history of installing two sets of bathrooms in public spacesone for women and one for men. What is the appropriate bathroom for transgender students? They generally want to be able to use the bathrooms that are marked for the sex that matches their gender. The problem is that not everyone agrees that they should have that option.
The administration of President Barack Obama applied Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to protect an employee’s and student’s right to use bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity. As a result, many school districts or schools have adopted a policy that gives trans students the right to use the bathroom that matches their gender. In addition, they may have installed or designated gender-neutral bathrooms in the school similar to the family bathrooms found in airports, sports venues, and public buildings. However, some parents and communities argue that that right invades on the privacy of their son or daughter and could be dangerous as well. As a result of these concerns, some states have adopted and others are considering laws to restrict bathroom rights to people whose biological sex matches their gender.
The 2016 guidance for Title IX was revoked in February 2017, but the courts continue to rule in favor of trans students in G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board (2016) and Whitaker v. Kenosha Unified School District (2017). In May 2018, a federal court in Philadelphia “refused to block a Pennsylvania school district’s policy of permitting trans students to use the restrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identity” (Walsh, 2018, p. 26). At the same time, a federal district judge in Virginia ruled in favor of a trans boy to use the male restroom in his school.
What do you think? Should trans students be able to use the bathroom that matches their gender? Why do you think trans students should or should not be able to use the bathroom that matches their gender?
FOR
Trans students should to be treated fairly and with dignity in schools. In addition to not always being recognized for who they are, they can’t always find a bathroom in which they feel safe.
All people should feel safe using the bathroom. Trans students face significant discrimination and bullying in schools and do not always feel comfortable using bathrooms that do not match their gender where they may be outed, bullied, or not allowed to enter.
Many trans students experience health issues such as kidney stones and bladder infections because they avoid using bathrooms at school and in other public places.
The revocation of the Obama guidance is the first step to limit enforcement of Title IX and other laws to biological sex as indicated on a person’s birth certificate rather than gender.
Recent court decisions have supported trans students’ right to use bathrooms and other school facilities that match their gender based on Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and/or the Fourteenth Amendment.
AGAINST
When someone’s gender identity doesn’t match their biological sex, they have a condition known as gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder, which was labeled a mental disorder until 2013.
People should use the bathroom that matches their biological sex as has been the practice in the United States for generations.
Having trans students use the bathroom that matches their gender invades the privacy of the students for which the bathrooms have been designated. Girls are very uncomfortable about sharing a bathroom with biological males.
This policy would allow any person to decide to use the bathroom of the opposite sex whether they are trans or not, which could place girls and young women in danger. What is to stop a male sexual predator from masquerading as a female?
Schools should not have to pander to every gender preference.
Questions for Discussion
1. Why are trans students fighting for the right to use the bathroom that is consistent with their gender identity?
2. The term gender does not appear in either Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendment or the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Why (or why not) do you think the term sex, which does appear in those two laws, should be interpreted to mean gender and include trans people?
3. How would you respond to parents who were concerned about the safety of their daughter under a policy allowing trans students to use bathrooms that match their gender?
