Transforming barriers
A look at the rights of the transgender community
What do Caitlin Jenner, President Barack Obama, and BOHS have in common? They all promote bathroom rights for transgender youth.
But should transgender individuals have the right to choose the bathroom of their choice? According to a New York Times poll conducted in May, 41 percent of Americans believe they should. According to a CBS poll, the percentage drops to 26. But according to a Wildcat survey of 613 BOHS students, that percentage is 61, and even more numbers reveal that statistical attitudes at BOHS toward transgender issues are higher than most national polls.
In March, North Carolina passed a bill banning transgender citizens from using a bathroom that did not correspond with their original gender. The so-called “bathroom bill” sparked a national controversy, with many businesses and corporations, like PayPal and Deutsch Bank, refusing to expand their business in the state; big-name music acts, like Maroon 5 and Bruce Springsteen, canceling concerts;, and sports organizations like the NBA re-evaluating their relationship with the state. A lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice and then a public directive from Obama urging public schools to let transgender students use the bathroom of their choice followed.
In California, however, Obama’s statement is already a state policy as Gov. Jerry Brown signed the state’s own “school bathroom bill” almost three years ago. The bill, also known as the School Success and Opportunity Act, allows transgender students to use the bathroom, locker room, and join a sports team consistent with the gender they identify with. And California’s anti-discrimination laws for gender identity and expression have been in effect for the past 13 years, in contrast to North Carolina’s bill, which allows gender identity discrimination based on religious beliefs.
The Wildcat survey also revealed that 81 percent of students believe that the government should protect transgender people from discrimination (compared to CNN’s poll of 75 percent), and 65 percent of students oppose North Carolina’s bathroom bill (compared to CNN’s 57 percent).
“[Transgender people] should be allowed to use whatever bathroom that they feel comfortable with. If they feel more comfortable, then it’s the best thing for anybody. If somebody believes with their heart, mind, and soul that they weren’t born in the right body, then they should be able to do something about it. They should use whatever bathroom they feel comfortable with and wear whatever they want. I think we should just respect that,” Isabel Garcia, sophomore and LGBT rights supporter, said.
The CNN poll also found a significant trend among those against transgender rights, revealing that most tended to be male, Republican, associated with a religious group, and over 45. But for Jamison Cooper, freshman, religion is a reason to support transgender rights.
“I believe in God, so I think God made everybody for a reason. He made transgender people in that way, so I think it’s perfectly fine. They should have the right to feel [like they] fit in. It’s hard enough for transgenders already to be in high school, especially with people who judge so much, and I think [allowing them to use their preferred bathroom] would make it easier for them. It would also give them some more equality to have them feel like they have the right.”
According to Cooper, she had a friend in elementary school who is transgender who impacted her position on transgender rights. “People tend to see them as different than us, but [my friend] is no different. She’s very sweet, and actually, if anything, a lot nicer than most people. You can’t look at somebody in that way. I think this issue is just like religion or skin color. You shouldn’t view them to be any different than us.”
Senior Erick Flores’s views on transgender rights were also influenced by transgender friends.
“They were my friends, and they still currently are. Honestly, they just had a hard life, and would be better for them if a couple people were nicer to them because not a lot of people are,” Flores said. “[Transgender people] should be perfectly comfortable in choosing which type of bathroom they want to use, and we as straight people shouldn’t disagree with their choices. They are people just like us. If we start segregating them, what is that going to turn into?”
BOHS’s stance on transgender students follows the state law, allowing transgender students to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. Of the 10 students interviewed for this article, six agreed with the policy, two were unsure, and two opposed it..
“[The school policy] is definitely a step in the right direction as it tells the transgender people, ‘Hey, it’s okay, you can feel this way. It’s okay and it’s not wrong,’ and I think we need that now especially,” Leilani Whitmer, freshman, said. “[Prohibiting a transgender person from not using the bathroom of their choice] [is] not right; it would be like you not being able to shop at a store you want to go to because of your gender. It’s similar to that and it’s not fair to them.”
But not everyone is supportive of BOHS’s policy. According to Aidan Yeung, sophomore, the school’s bathroom policy is “inappropriate”.
“I disagree with [the policy] because, knowing teenagers, I think some kids would be using it to go into the opposite gender’s bathroom,” Aidan Yeung, sophomore, said. “Just because you think you’re a girl doesn’t mean you get to go into the girls’ bathroom. You’re still a boy so you have to qualify with the male bathroom.”
When Target announced their policy of allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice, many critics, ranging from politicians to the OneMillionMoms campaign, argued that it promotes sexual predators to pose as transgender people and access a certain bathroom with wrong intentions. Many supporters of North Carolina’s bathroom bill started a #KeepNCSafe movement, stating the bill was to protect public safety.
“[The bathroom bill] would make other people in the bathroom uncomfortable, number one, and number two, yes, people like that would be going into bathrooms to spy on other people and to stalk, because whenever a rule like that occurs, you can always count on humans and other people to kind of bend the rules and get around it,” Yeung said.
However, a liberal group called Media Matters for America has studied the bathroom issue for several years and polled public school systems with pro-transgender bathroom policies. They reported that in all the 17 public school districts with a total of 600,000 students, there was no reported case of “harassment or inappropriate behavior” related to the issue. In addition, according to the Transgender Law Center, the Human Rights Campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union, there is no statistical evidence to support the claim of transgender-related violence in public bathrooms.
According to Principal Jerry Halpin, there have been no reported incidents of transgender- and bathroom-related misconduct at BOHS, although he has no knowledge of any transgender students at BOHS. (UCLA estimates the transgender population in America is 0.3 percent, or 700,00 people, and claims it might even be higher.)
Studies have even found that in cases where bathroom-related violence has occurred, most of the time, the transgender individual was the victim. A report by the National Transgender Discrimination Survey found that 63 percent of transgender people “had experienced a serious act of discrimination” in their life, and a 2013 Williams Institute study found that “roughly 70 percent of trans people have reported being denied entrance, assaulted or harassed while trying to use a restroom”. But even though there is statistical evidence of discrimination toward transgender people in bathrooms, laws like that of North Carolina aim to protect the safety of the public, to which there is no evidence that the public is being threatened.
The Wildcat survey also asked students if they would support BOHS if it imposed a pro-transgender bathroom policy. Although the question did not inform them of the current BOHS policy, 57 percent of the students said they would support it while 40 percent said they would not.
Lastly, the Wildcat survey revealed that 65 percent of students oppose North Carolina’s law and 61 percent support Target’s policy.
And while BOHS’ statistical evidence seems to be higher than similar national polls, it comes at no surprise, considering that California is one of the most progressive states in the nation.
California was one of the first states to pass anti-discriminatory laws against the LGBT community and the first to pass a pro-transgender bathroom bill.
And its path toward LGBT rights continues even today, whether it’s at the local level, like the Los Angeles City Council prohibiting government workers from taking federally-funded trips to North Carolina, or at the state level, like California lawmakers passing unanimous legislation in April to label single-occupancy bathrooms as “all-gender” and earning the state another “first” in the country for LGBT rights.
“[BOHS’ bathroom policy] allows transgender students to express themselves and be who they want to be,” Flores said. “But [policies like North Carolina’s] impede on one’s personal rights: freedom of speech, liberty, all of that. If we put restrictions on that sort of thing, people are going to be outraged by the restriction of freedom.”
