BANGOR, Maine — A Superior Court judge will decide whether a lawsuit filed by an Orono couple over the local school district’s handling of their transgender child’s transition from male to female will go forward.
A transgender person is born one biological sex but identifies himself or herself as belonging to the opposite gender.
Justice William Anderson heard oral arguments on motions for summary judgments Wednesday morning at the Penobscot Judicial Center. His questions for attorneys centered on whether the school district broke the law in 2007 when it stopped letting the child use the girls bathroom and had her use a staff bathroom after the grandfather and legal guardian of a male classmate complained.
“This is a close case,” Anderson said at the end of the hourlong hearing. “It’s a very interesting case and a very important case.”
It is the first case in Maine to address a transgender student’s right to use the bathroom of the gender with which he or she identifies.
There is no timetable under which the judge must issue his decision, but Anderson said at the end of Wednesday’s hearing that it would be “fairly quickly.” The case tentatively is scheduled to go to trial in November or December. The plaintiffs have asked for a jury-waived trial.
The child’s parents — on her behalf, along with the Maine Human Rights Commission — sued the district in November 2009 in Penobscot County Superior Court over her access to the girls bathroom and the school’s treatment of her. The lawsuit was filed five months after the commission found the school had discriminated against the girl.
Defendants in the lawsuit include Kelly Clenchy, the former superintendent of the Orono School District, now Riverside RSU 26, and officials at Asa Adams School and the Orono Middle School.
The family and their child are not identified in the lawsuit but are referred to as the Does. Subsequent news stories, however, have identified the parents as Wayne and Kelly Maines and their twin children as Nicole and Jonas, both now 14. In court documents and in the courtroom Wednesday, family members were not named but referred to as the Does, with Nicole Maines being called “Susan Doe.”
The girl and her parents attended the hearing but did not testify and did not address the court. The family left the courthouse without speaking with reporters.
The lawsuit claims that the school discriminated against the girl when officials had her use a staff bathroom during the 2007-08 school year. It also alleges that the district’s “eyes-on” policy, instituted the following year while she was a sixth-grader at the Orono Middle School, caused more harm than good.
Her access to the girls bathroom was the only issue discussed at Wednesday’s hearing.
Nicole told the Bangor Daily News last year that she found the “eyes-on” policy “stressful.”
“An adult would stand 15 feet away from me wherever I went,” she said. “When I would go to the bathroom, they would follow me. When I would go to the lunchroom, they’d follow me. It was like I had an invisible string attached to me and they were on the other end. It was ridiculous.”
Melissa Hewey, the Portland attorney who represents the school district, said last year that the “eyes-on” practice is common and endorsed by the Maine Administrators of Service for Children with Disabilities. She also said it was instituted after Wayne and Kelly Maines met with middle school officials and expressed concern about potential bullying.
The family is seeking damages, claiming the mother and the two children, both born identical twin boys, were forced to move to southern Maine, where they still live, to find a more supportive school environment. The father remains in Orono, where he is employed by the University of Maine.
Last year, Anderson dismissed the portion of the bathroom claim that alleged it was not a “reasonable accommodation” under Maine law to have the child use a staff bathroom rather than the girls bathroom. He let go forward a claim that school officials discriminated against the child when they refused to allow her to use the girls bathroom, according to John Gause, an attorney for the Maine Human Rights Commission, which has sued the district over the bathroom issue.
“Today’s hearing was just about what the law says and not what the law should be or what’s good for any individual student,” Hewey said after the hearing. “Our point of view is that there is a clear regulation on the books that says we can do what we did and, therefore, we cannot have discriminated.”
That regulation says that schools are required to provide separate bathrooms, locker rooms, showers and other facilities for males and females. Hewey said that the section of the Maine Human Rights Act that deals with gender identity and public accommodation does not apply in this case.
The family’s attorney, Bennett Klein of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in Boston, disagreed. He told Anderson that Hewey’s interpretation would mean that a transgender student who was born a male but identified as a female could not use the girls bathroom at school but could use the women’s bathroom at a museum during a class field trip.
Klein disagreed with Hewey and the Maine Human Rights Act’s section of gender identity discrimination applied to schools.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Anderson asked Gause several times why the Maine Human Rights Commission had not clarified the law for schools. Gause said that twice — once in the Doe case and again in a second case involving access by a transgender adult to a bathroom at Denny’s Restaurant in Auburn — commissioners had ruled that a transgender person cannot be denied access to the restroom designed for the gender with which he or she identifies.
The attorney also said that last year the Legislature spoke on the issue when it defeated a bill that would have forced transgender individuals to use the public bathroom assigned to their biological sex rather than the gender with which they identify.
In a phone interview after the hearing, Gause said the commission had been asked by a school management organization to hold off on providing guidance to schools about dealing with transgender students until after the lawsuit against the Orono district has been concluded.
Time to make the popcorn and I hope the lawsuit will move forward.
Me too Kevy,cause then I can start my lawsuit for the school to provide my
daughters with a tutor at home because No boy is sharing a toilet with them and I want
my kids to focus on an education involving reading, writing and arithmetic
and not sex choices.
I feel bad for the kid but an option was given and refused.
“No boy is sharing a toilet with [the girls]”
The transgendered student in question is a girl, not a boy.
Does the girl have a penis or a vagina?
Oh I’m sorry I thought it was a boy who thought he was a girl. I don’t remember seeing it’s a girl who thought she was a boy.
I still wouldn’t want my son in the same bathroom as a girl.I want my kids to do the basic’s of reading, writing, math and science in school.
I do not want my kids to deal with adult matters, I want my kids to be kids for as long as they can, childhood is too short. It infuritates me to no end that people try to force their issues on my kids, they are MY kids and while they are under my roof they are going to live how I want them to live . When they become adults then they can deal with and decide what they want to believe for adult issues.
“Time to make the popcorn and I hope the lawsuit will move forward.”
This case has been going on long enough that I’ve seen that sentence used in a comment to a story about a year or so ago.
Sockpuppet much?
Go watch your stupid carton.
Some people are different. That does not mean they should be picked on, belittled, bullied, or otherwise made to feel “less than” worthwhile as human beings. God loves all His children. Kindness and compassion is always the way to go in treating other human beings. Live and let live.
I agree. Even the lawyer representing the school district is friends with the transgendered professor at Colby. Representing against the transgendered student must be somewhat of a moral dilemma if not a conflict of interest.
Those are interesting thoughts, but hardly a moral dilemma and certainly not a conflict of interest in the sense that a lawyer representing a client would understand a conflict of interest. It’s likely that counsel would have declined the representation if there had been a conflict.
That does not mean that they deserve special rights or that my child should be tramatized by seeing a boy in the girls room because he “feels” like a girl that day. NO WAY JOSE’! This is assinine. The court should dismiss this case and make these people pay the taxpayers for all of the wasted money. They came up with a good option for this child that respected the RIGHTS of the majority of children which was to let the one “different” child use the adult restroom, not to punish the other hundreds of kids in the school. And we wonder what is wrong with our country.
I agree with the bathroom decision. What I was responding to was the characterization of this child as a freak by another poster. I also agree that people in this country have forgotten the skill of negotiating compromises. It is all or nothing, which is crazy in my opinion.
A compromise is not always in the child’s best interest. Sometimes parents need to say “no”, even under the threat of rejection by the child. Obviously the Orono couple won’t do that. That’s too bad for the child. At this point it would be wise for them to drop their lawsuit and steer their child away from “transgender” behavior for their child’s ultimate welfare.
“Special rights” huh? I wonder what is wrong with our country too, but I bet that I’m coming to very different conclusions than you are.
Not by chance is the anti SSM group called the Special Rights PAC.I’m thinking that all those likes were from a blast email sent to their supporters.
Why would it be traumatizing to see another gender in the same bathroom as us? And since when is it our right to pee in proximity to the same gender?
Ill tell you what the next time your in a store you go into the restroom of the opposite sex, see what happen..OH wait better yet go into your childs school and do it. You would be arrested for being a perv. Now we are telling our kids that there are no rules no norms and no morals. this is crazy, and we as taxpayers should be outraged that we are expected to pay for this crap.
Maybe I’ll identify myself as a Woman so I can use the ladies restroom and not have to stand in a puddle of pee in front of the urinals/stalls anymore.
LMAO!!! You think a women’s restroom is cleaner then the men’s. I hate to say this but women’s restrooms tend to be in far worse shape than the men’s.
You are SO right.I used to process time cards for cleaning a large public stadium.The costs for cleaning the women’s restrooms(not to mention the damage after nearly EVERY event)was far more than the men’s side.
Go ahead. Try it. Get a CLOSE shave. Have a professional put on your makeup (they’ll know how to hide the ‘blue shadow’.) Get a good wig, not an obviously cheap one. I suggest you wear a skirt/blouse combination, as it’s less revealing of the male figure (wide shoulders and no hips.) Wear flats – you need experience to walk good in heels. When you go into the ladies room, do it like you’ve been there thousands of times before. Be aware that sometimes you have to line up (potty parity is still just a dream.) When you get in the stall, remember to sit (toes pointing away from the door is a dead giveaway.)
I dare you. Because I don’t think you have the ‘brass’ to do it.
WOW. Someone missed out on a sense of humor.
Sounds like you should have advised Larry Craig.
If I had been drinking liquids while I read that I would be cleaning my LCD in haste right now.
Larry Craig is gay, not trans. Gays don’t like trans folks.
That may be so,although it’s unfortunate if true.I was just remarking on how detailed that post was.That said,the rest of your posts here have contributed greatly to the conversation.Nice to see someone with a scientific background post instead of the dimwits wasting valuable space.
Just because that is a social norm today doesn’t make it right or doesn’t mean it shouldn’t change. In college, my entire dorm building had gender-neutral bathrooms. It was never a problem and I never felt weird about showering or peeing next to a guy. They’re just another human being, I really don’t see what the problem is. “No rules, no norms, and no morals.” Seriously? It’s peeing in a bathroom. That doesn’t mean ALL rules or norms go out the window. Come on, that makes no sense.
I don’t think too many of the people expressing outrage here had a college experience to draw from, which is a large part of the problem. Thanks for your input.
Thank goodness for that.
Think how screwed up this country would be if everybody continued their indoctrination after high school.
Great point.Many of them probably had trouble in grade school which is why they seem to know so much about it.
That statement is ridiculous and insulting. The fact that someone disagrees with you doesn’t give you the right to insinuate that he/she is somehow mentally deficient. This case is just one more example of political correctness gone viral. School officials did what they felt best served ALL of the students. People talk about compromise- why were these parents so unwilling to meet school officials half-way? We can’t always have what we want and your rights end where mine begin.
The child in question is a girl.
The fact that she has male genitalia doesn’t change that.
She’s not a “perv,” she’s a young girl who wants to use the girl’s room. Obviously, the unconventional nature of her “plumbing” makes this a bit of a delicate situation, but there’s nothing even remotely inappropriate going on here.
I have news for you, @mainemomforsanity, You’ve shared the public restrooms with many transwomen. Some had ‘the operation’, and some didn’t. Some were in the stall next to yours, some washed their hands or freshened up their lipstick next to you. How many transwomen did you identify?
Are you even remote familiar with the concept of human decency?
Because your comment is one of the most vile, disgusting things I’ve ever read in the BDN’s comments, and I’ve read some pretty depraved opinions expressed here.
Really, it’s not so much the content of your comment that’s so revolting; I’ve read far worse, unfortunately. It’s the fact that SIXTY PEOPLE agree with you, while only a dozen agree with the comment disagreeing with yours.
What the hell is wrong with our society? Because it certainly isn’t transgendered teens being allowed to use the proper bathroom, you can be damn sure of that.
My thoughts exactly.I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t a social media request to boost the hater’s numbers.Fortunately Maine does have plenty of decent people who aren’t funded by liars,creationists and other such cretins.I wish this child and family much success.
I guess I just try to look at thing too simplified, why can’t schools just have a uni-sex bathroom with wheelchair access and then they are covered for about everything………………………… or would that make to much sense.
It wouldn’t be “good enough” We’d still be infringing on someones rights, and the child- no- the PARENTS, would still want their child using the bathroom of the opposite sex. This is a crazy, crazy, sick world.
No, it’s not a crazy, sick world.
There are just too darn many liberals in it.
That’s the problem.
There are a lot of issues that I have with a parent that allows their child to begin their sexual transition to the opposite gender as a child.
My first problem is that the child is a MINOR. They do not have the intellectual capability of comprehending the long-term effects of their decision to change genders.
My next problem is that the parents are providing their child with advanced sexual knowledge above and beyond that which is necessary to encourage reproduction (e.g. contributing to the delinquency of a minor).
My most significant problem with this is that authorities will not step in to remove these children from their parents. Making a decision to change genders should be afforded to those that reach maturity, and have the ability to weigh the consequences of their decision. Most parents that allow their children to go through with this believe that it will gain them favorable attention from the GLBT community, thus protecting them from the wave of liberalism that is making its way across the country.
In terms of the article, I do not believe that transgender children should be allowed to use whichever bathroom that they choose. If a boy still has his bits’n’pieces, he is still a male, by legal medical definition.
I am sorry, but allowing your child to change genders just to watch people you feel are lesser than you squirm is not worth destroying your child’s future.
You raise some very good points. If more people like you commented on articles around here, I might feel a little bit better about living on this planet.
Someone is seeing $$$$$$ SIGNS,AND ITS NOT THE POOR CHILD!
“My first problem is that the child is a MINOR. They do not have the intellectual capability of comprehending the long-term effects of their decision to change genders.”
Some children develop a clear gender identity by age 3, most do by age 6, and nearly all by age 10. Notice I said ‘develop.’ They are not ‘taught’ how to be the gender that matches their bodies’ genitalia – their innate feeling of ‘which team they’re on’ is hard-wired into their brains in the womb.
For 59 out of 60 of us, our gender identity matches our genitalia. Of the 1-in-60, 95% to 98% can live with their gender identity ambiguity. In some cases, though, the discordance between what their brains are telling them and what ‘society’ tells them (because of a quick look at their crotch at birth,) is too great.
A usual call is to ‘fix’ them through psychological counseling (doesn’t work,) ‘discipline’ (doesn’t work and makes them crazy,) beatings (feels good to the beater but – wait for it – doesn’t work,) or other violent or cruel tactics. They don’t work. The brain is wired for the other gender on a cellular level. To fix it, you would need to go back to the 15th week of gestation and override whatever process led to the gendering of the neuroanatomy.
Well then, by all means let’s change the rules to accommodate the 2% of defects and make the 98% uncomfortable.
Just curious, what about those rare cases, but ones which exist nevertheless, where kids are born with BOTH sets of equipment….
“My next problem is that the parents are providing their child with advanced sexual knowledge above and beyond that which is necessary to encourage reproduction (e.g. contributing to the delinquency of a minor).”
So, how do you ‘encourage reproduction’ in a 12-year-old? Especially if you believe in ‘abstinence only’ sex education? Over-sexualize minors much?
This is a social transition. You don’t have to teach a trans-child how to ‘do it’ in order to facilitate a social transition.
Medically, the only thing that can happen is the delaying of puberty until the child reaches the age of majority, and can then choose for herself whether to continue on and go through the chosen puberty.
However, if you ‘let nature take its course’ and the child goes through the unwanted-gender’s puberty, you can (all too often) end up with a dead child. Many parents of transgender children have wished they had supported their children, rather than having only bittersweet memories of a child who took her own life.
IMHO If the child has male “parts” then the child uses the bathroon designated for males. Same for female “parts”. It seems like the parents in this case have nothing better to do than instigate frivolous lawsuits against the state. Our schools are falling behind on testing and instead of focusing on how to make all of our kids excel we are worried about hurting the feeling of a few “non-typical” students. Rediculous.
Except for that sex isn’t determined by what “parts” you have. It’s determined by chromosomes, XX or XY. People can be born with male chromosomes but have female genitalia and vice versa. Not to mention, people can be born with XXY chromosome or be born with both genitalia. It’s really way, way more complicated that just having certain “parts”. And it doesn’t really matter if these people are “non-typical”. Just because you are a minority doesn’t mean your rights are less important. That’s ridiculous.
What you are talking about are anomalies caused by some genetic flaw or some kind of interruption in fetal development that give the genitals the mere appearance of genitals of the opposite sex. Appearance in this case is deceiving, however. A person is conceived either male or female in all instances.
Then perhaps each child that wants to access the opposite sex bathroom should have genetic testing and if the are XX, XY, XXY or whatever then they use that bathroom. What prevents 13 or 14 year old people from claiming they identify with the opposite sex just to have access to that bathroom…and it’s probably another lawsuit waiting if someone asked for history that this is indeed how they identify…I do believe a bathroom and shower/ lockeroom unisex facility should be planned in new schools and community sites having it be an option for ALL kids if they want to use it… But don’t agree that all children should have this forced on them perhaps this would be detrimental to them.
“Patients: A 46,XY mother who developed as a normal woman underwent spontaneous puberty,
reached menarche, menstruated regularly, experienced two unassisted pregnancies, and gave
birth to a 46,XY daughter with complete gonadal dysgenesis.”
You were saying?
But if you’re in a minority of any sort,your rights are trampled if you even have them in the first place.If you’re born a rich white person in the US,you’re already granted rights so far above the rest of the world as to make your position above reproach or difficulty.The pendulum is slowly moving toward equality but the TPers are no help.Maine has a huge chance to do the right thing on 11/6 and it looks like that will happen.
If the child has male parts but is presenting as female and has to go into the male restroom, the child will eventually (and sooner rather than later) run into boys who will use the gender incongruity as a ‘reason’ to beat the Gender Identity Disphoria out of the child. Problem is, it’s been tried before and it doesn’t work.
Hazamu
I do agree that a child who is obviously male but acts female (or vice-versa) could potentially encounter some hazing at school. This hazing, however, also happens to overweight kids as well as kids who are small for their age, mentally retarded, or just plain “different”. In all cases hazing shall not be tolerated and the proper way to deal with it is to punish the ones who dish it out. Bullying itself is not grounds for giving special provisions for those who are subject to said bullying. I myself was an overweight child and was subject to bullying at certain times during my grade school career. Although I felt that this was not fair I did not expect the school system to provide me with a special playground to play on so that I could feel safe. Sometimes life is not fair but you deal with it, learn from it, and grow.
FYI, I finally fought back. I was blamed by the adults for ‘starting’ every fight, and got the brunt of the punishment. We had a developmentally disabled kid in school who was weird and had grand mal seizures regularly. He had steel-toed boots and started fights, because he knew the teachers would protect him.
The kids who get bullied are the ‘pussies’. Feminine-acting boys are ‘pussies’. Shy, overweight kids are ‘pussies’. weird kids who won’t defend themselves are ‘pussies’.. Pussies are bully magnets. But the bullies will respect you and eventually leave you alone if you never back down and always leave the attacker with a ‘gift’ for his troubles, even if you get the s[not] kicked out of you. After a year and a half of fights every three weeks, I was left alone, and the bullies told other bullies I wasn’t worth it.
This article is a bit misleading . . .the blatant discrimination occurred at Orono Middle School when Robert Lucy was the principal. Hmmm . . .It appears that Mr. Lucy is finally experiencing some of the hell he has put students, parents, community members, and staff through in his need for absolute control and conformity to his world view.
Why does this article refer to the child as a “her”, when the child is a him. Wanting to be a “her” does not make it so does it?
You realize sex and gender are different things, right?
Like already said by a few others here… Male parts = Male and Female Parts = Female. No if, ands or buts! If the fed/state/county/local prisons, military, etc. are following this rule, why wouldn’t the schools?
I’ll just copy my statement from above for a comment here. But sex isn’t determined by what “parts” you have. It’s determined by chromosomes, XX or XY. People can be born with male chromosomes but have female genitalia and vice versa. Not to mention, people can be born with XXY chromosomes or be born with both genitalia. It’s really way more complicated that just having certain “parts”.
I’m not saying what makes what/who… I’m saying that if one part of our government determines gender a certain way, that all government agencies (including our schools) should use the same guidelines to determine gender.
Well except you are saying that what makes what/who “no if ands or buts” apparently. And this is a complicated issue that is being debated about for prisons, professional sports (Olympics, for example), and schools. I don’t think our government determines gender to be a certain way. It’s socially determined. There debates are definitely being more discussed recently and I’m not sure many policy changes have occurred yet. But, I’ll have to look up more about it.
“Patients: A 46,XY mother who developed as a normal woman underwent spontaneous puberty, reached menarche, menstruated regularly, experienced two unassisted pregnancies, and gave birth to a 46,XY daughter with complete gonadal dysgenesis.”
Let’s see — XY chromosomes = male. But this male had ovaries, fallopian tubes, a ‘birth canal’ and female pudenda. This male bled once a month, and conceived and bore two children through ‘his’ birth canal.
It’s how the brain is formed that makes men act like men and women act like women. The ‘naughty bits’ have no power to influence behaviour, nor do the 23d pair of chromosomes. The “Y” chromosome is only a marker that’s ‘right’ 98% of the time But that’s not 100%
I guess I don’t understand this Mightier Than Though mindset. “I DEMAND to use the girl’s bathroom because I WANT to”
How do the other Girl’s feel about that?
Oh, no one cares…because we have to bend over backwards to appease the transgender and their ACLU legal team.
I suppose if you claim you don’t want to be treated different, why lawyer up? Why confront the system when you clearly could’ve worked with it?
The school offered a solution but egos weren’t appeased.
Our society accepts people of all creed and orientation. Demanding you want acceptance and more….I dunno…there’s a lot to be said about compromise versus always crying victim.
“How do the other Girl’s feel about that? ”
You might find that significantly less than half have no problems whatsoever with a transgirl in the midst of their girls-only space. And for those few girls who still have reservations (or, their parents,) there could be restrooms the transgirl is allowed to use, and restrooms that are off-limits to the transgirl. Those girls who have problems sharing the restroom with the transgirl (or have parents who wish to forbid them from interacting with the transgirl,) can use the designated trans-free restrooms on campus.
This is a pretty simple matter for me, I’m just going to screech real loud and reject whatever is unfamiliar to me! I mean, why should I spend my time to inform myself with facts and reality? It’s so much simpler to scream things like “disgusting!” than it is to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.
So yeah, omg, transgendered child. AWFUL!
If we were talking about someone that was 16 or 17, the reaction might be a little different. At that age people are kinda having an idea of what they want to do with their lives. Someone that is in elementary or junior high school…they don’t have a clue. Their bodies are changing and their minds are changing. I don’t agree with it either way, but still, let’s at least let someone get to an age of understanding before we say: “Oh, you don’t feel like you were supposed to be a boy, well, you can live as a girl.” This child could 20 or 30 years down the road say: “Wow, I made a mistake…” Doubtful that it would happen, but, hey, you never know.
Transgender minors transition socially. This is all that’s needed until puberty.
With the exception of genitalia, pre-pubertal boys’ and girls’ bodies are indistinguishable. Their voices are the same, and any gender presentation is based on dress, hairstyle and whatever gender identity has emerged.
When they reach the age of puberty, their medical support MAY recommend puberty blockers. The good thing about puberty blockers is that they can be withdrawn at any time and then the patient goes through the puberty their body is programmed to have.
For transchildren, puberty blockers allow them to reach the age of majority without having their bodies stigmatized by the secondary gender characteristics of the unwanted gender, should they, upon reaching the age of majority at 18, choose to complete their medical transition.
So, is this yet another example of parents pushing their will on children and schools? A child doesn’t have the mental capacity to make such a life altering decision. I think it’s highly immoral to encourage a child to do one thing or another as well. I think the proper step should have been to go to some sort of counseling or something. I know one thing, if I was a parent, I would be livid if I found out that a transgendered child was going to the bathroom my child was using. Where did common sense go?
I doubt the parents are encouraging their child to be transgendered. I’m sure it must have been a series of events and discussions over 10+ years that made the parents realize their child was different. People like this don’t become transgendered overnight. It’s a really tough thing to go through and honestly good for the parents for accepting their child. But why are you so threatened by this child? Why do children HAVE to pee next to our same sex? Is common sense the same thing as a social norm? I don’t think so.
“A child doesn’t have the mental capacity to make such a life altering decision.”
Actually, they do have the mental capacity to know they’ve been assigned to ‘the wrong team’.
Some children develop a gender identity (dolls vs. trucks, competition vs. ‘coopetition’, physical play vs. fantasy play, etc.,) as early as age 3. Most have settled into their gender identity by age 6, almost all by age 10. They know where they belong.
Their gender identity matches their genitalia 98% of the time. So if you, as a parent, ‘teach’ your son to be a boy or your daughter to be a girl, you’ll probably be ‘successful.’
And of the less than 2% who don’t quite fit, for most it’s not so bad and they can fake it. And again, the parent is ‘successful’ in teaching the child how to ‘behave like a boy” (or girl, as the case may be.)
For 1 in 1,000, though, no amount of ‘teaching’ will work. If the child is lucky, the child psychologist will refer the patient to a therapist that specializes in gender issues, and the therapist makes the diagnosis that the child is well and truly transgender. If the child is really lucky, the parents may come to accept the gender therapists’ recommendations.
The father of this child wanted his son ‘fixed’ by whatever means it would take, right up until the specialist asked him, “Do you want a living daughter, or a dead son?”
To your first sentence-not much different than the God Squad shrieking and hollering every time their precious rights(and no one else’s)were violated.Those are the parents you need to be worried about.
Good God Almighty!!!!
God made the transgender transgender. God doesn’t make junk.
Maybe someday, something will make you “different,” and you’ll have the guts to stand up for your rights.
The school district made their decision “after the grandfather and legal guardian of a male classmate complained?” Exactly how did the fact that the transgendered student was using the girls’ room IN ANY WAY EFFECT THE MALE CLASSMATE?
It didn’t at all but as always old conservatives had to cost the rest of us $$. I can’t wait until they throw dirt on the last one of these idiots and then the world can make REAL progress.
First off, I am a FTM transman. Second, transgender individuals for the most part are not even comfortable with seeing their own genitalia so what makes you think they will go flashing it around for others to look at? Third, are the other little girls at that school so bad that they are going to climb the stalls to see this child’s genitals?! Honestly people should get a grip. The other children could probably care less and the transgender child does not want to “show-off” what she has between her legs! I highly doubt anyone would be traumatized from someone peeing in another stall next to them. However, it is hurtful when a child who is transgender is treated like some animal or as if something is awful wrong with them. I have a GPA of 4.0 and am majoring psychology. So to those that want to judge or try to put me down: You can blow smoke…., I could care less. When it comes to mistreating a child though, I will not stand down.
Well said.Certainly no kid anywhere who is different in any way wants to advertise the fact.School is tough enough without making it worse.Ask the kid whose hair was cut by Mitt.I wish you success and thanks for speaking up.I’m a straight male who supports everyone being who they are to be their best.Proud to support MUM X3 and looking forward to 11/6.
Both sides of this issue have valid arguments. The problem is that the court will rule in favor of only one side. If the parents lose the case chances are they will appeal it as high as needed because they feel very strongly about the way their child was treated at the school. The school may not keep the fight going if they lose because the cost to tax payers is not worth the battle. Besides, at the end of the day regardless of the outcome the school will have lost. Focus will have shifted away from teaching students and teachers may be less apt to take actions against some other yet-to-be-identified issue for fear of a law suit.
What will the impact on the student body if the court rules that grade school or high school students do not have to use the bathroom of their gender and can use the one that they identify with? Most likely nothing.
Is there a possibility a younger student could be in the bathroom at the same time as a transgender person and is emotionally disturbed by something that might be accidently seen. What would happen if that child’s parents sued the school because of it? How would that case play out in court? This argument can also be applied to not allowing peanut butter in the schools. Parents threaten to sue the school because their child has to sit away from everyone else at lunch because of peanut allergies. To avoid the law suit the school prohibits peanut butter in the school. A different parent has a child that loves peanut butter sandwiches and that is all they like to eat. The school either takes the lunch away from the child or makes the child eat in a separate room. Which parent has the right to sue, should either?
Schools need to focus on educating our children and preparing them for the future. The school contains a diverse student body with different types of social, economic & medical issues. There is no way a school system can address all the different issues and provide policies that covers everyone. Parents need to understand that even though their child is the center of their universe that sometimes they cannot fix everything.
@mainemomforsanity:disqus I cannot believe you would find it appropriate to treat a child with such indifference and haste because you think it will scar the other children at the school. What about the rights of ALL children. When my brother was in high school he had come out. He was fortunate to have his high school treated him with respect and allowed him to use the men’s bathrooms even though he technically had lady parts. When you are transexual you honestly feel that mentally you are a male or female (dependent on orientation), trust me it is not a choice that you can just make, it took my brother years to figure this out. To help paint a picture my brother described this mental image to me when he first came out, and told me that “it’s like you are wearing a costume 24 hours a day, you feel like a male but you look like a female”.
Why would anyone want to subject anyone to feel like they are not worthy of being the sex they feel that they are and on top of that, all it is, is a place that he/she feels more comfortable peeing! The other students should to adapt to the situation, because the school should be a safe haven where students can grow be the best as he or she can be. By hindering what seems as a small basic right for the student, could possibly hinder they growth into a happy human being.
Also a side bar, now that my brother has become a man, he has never been more confident and is truly the happiest I have ever seen him.
The saying, “It’s all in your head” really seems to sum this all up. Ask any competent neurologist and they will tell you they have barely scratched the surface of what they know about the brain and how it works. Maybe someday science will be able to identify what causes this to happen and might even be able to correct it which would then give a person two trails to follow, fix the brain so you identify as what your body is or fix the body so you match what the brain identifies as. This child identifies as a female but is genetically a male, and as such should not be going into the girls bathroom. If you honestly have no problem visiting a public facility where a member of the opposite sex is allowed to use the same room you use then, by all means, next time you’re out in the public sector use the room designated for the opposite sex….see how far that gets you.