Subject: Re: ERA - unisex bathrooms
From: "Ann O'Leary" <[email-masked]>
To: John Podesta <[email-masked]>, Jake Sullivan <[email-masked]>, Maya Harris <[email-masked]>, Edward Meier <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2015 19:19:06 -0500

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As Transgender Students Make Gains, Schools Hesitate at Bathrooms

By JULIE BOSMAN
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/julie_bosman/index.html>
 and MOTOKO RICH
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/motoko_rich/index.html>NOV.
3, 2015

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CHICAGO — Asked to call a transgender boy by a male name he has chosen for
himself, teachers and administrators around the country have leaned toward
a simple response: Sure. Allow a high school student who was born male but
identifies as female to join the volleyball team? Fine.
STORIES FROM OUR ADVERTISERS

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But as transgender students assert themselves more, schools have hesitated
at the locker room and the bathroom. Many have developed policies that
require transgender students to use private changing and showering
facilities, drawing opposition from these students, their parents and
advocates who say the rules are discriminatory.
Continue reading the main story
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/us/as-transgender-students-make-gains-schools-hesitate-at-bathrooms.html#story-continues-3>RELATED
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   <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/15/us/beyond-caitlyn-jenner-lies-a-long-struggle-by-transgender-people.html>
   - [image: Catherine Lhamon, the Education Department’s assistant
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   <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/us/illinois-district-violated-transgender-students-rights-us-says.html>
   - [image: Rocko Gieselman hangs out at the L.G.B.T.Q.A. Center at the
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   A University Recognizes a Third Gender: NeutralFEB. 3, 2015
   <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/education/edlife/a-university-recognizes-a-third-gender-neutral.html>

The Education Department on Monday
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/us/illinois-district-violated-transgender-students-rights-us-says.html>
gave
school officials at a suburban Chicago high school 30 days to resolve a
dispute with a transgender student who identifies as a girl and has sought
to change and shower in the girls’ locker room without restrictions;
otherwise, the school risks forfeiting Title IX funding. The confrontation
was an echo of battles nationwide, where the locker room and often the
restroom are the stage for a fierce fight over how extensively transgender
students should be accommodated.
Continue reading the main story
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/us/as-transgender-students-make-gains-schools-hesitate-at-bathrooms.html#story-continues-4>What
Is the Locker-Room Policy for Transgender Students at Your Child’s School?

Are you aware of a transgender child at your child’s school? What are the
rules set around bathrooms and locker rooms, and how have the conversations
around that gone where you live?Join the conversation on the Motherlode
blog.
<http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/what-is-the-locker-room-policy-for-transgender-students-at-your-childs-school/>

“I think it’s an issue that people are thinking about a lot,” said Thad
Ballard, the president of the Elko County school board in northeast Nevada,
which voted in September to keep transgender students out of bathrooms and
locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity. He said the move
was intended to preserve “the centuries-long tradition of respecting the
difference in the sexes.”

“When has it ever been appropriate for a biological boy or a biological
girl to be in the opposite restroom of their gender?” Mr. Ballard said.
“We’re all trying to think of the best way to protect the rights of all of
our students, whether they’re transgender or not.”

California, Washington, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and
the District of Columbia have already adopted policies requiring schools to
permit transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms based on the
student’s gender identity. In Maine, the State Supreme Court ruled last year
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/31/maine-court-rules-in-favor-of-transgender-pupil/5082077/>
that
under the state’s antidiscrimination law, a transgender girl could use the
bathrooms and locker rooms for the gender with which she identified.

Eleven other states have general antidiscrimination policies on the books
that might also protect the rights of transgender students in schools, said
Michael D. Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense
and Education Fund.

But some state legislatures are trying to move in the opposite direction.
Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin have proposed a bill that would bar
transgender students from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender
identity, a measure that Democrats say is discriminatory. In Minnesota in
April, the State Senate, dominated by Democrats, defeated a similar measure.

In Houston on Tuesday, voters defeated
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/us/houston-voters-repeal-anti-bias-measure.html>
a
proposal that would have established nondiscrimination protections for gay
and transgender residents. Supporters said the ordinance would have offered
increased protections for gay and transgender people, as well as
protections against discrimination based on sex, race, age and religion.
Opponents said theproposal infringed
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/us/tactics-and-antagonists-draw-attention-to-houston-rights-vote.html>
on
their religious beliefs, zeroing in on the protections it would have given
for gender identity, particularly transgender Houstonians who were born
male but identify as women.

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Some school districts have faced threats of legal action and federal
intervention if they exclude transgender students from the bathroom that
corresponds to their gender identity.

In Arcadia, Calif., the school district entered a settlement agreement
<http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-reaches-agreement-arcadia-california-school-district-resolve-sex-discrimination>
with
the Department of Justice and the Education Department’s Office of Civil
Rights after a transgender student who identifies as male brought a
complaint about being forced to sleep in a separate camp cabin during a
middle school science outing. District officials worked with federal
officials to create a new policy that allows transgender students access to
all sex-segregated facilities based on the gender with which they identify.

David Vannasdall, superintendent of Arcadia, a school district with fewer
than 10,000 students not far from downtown Los Angeles, said that in
assigning the student to a separate cabin, the district had followed the
advice of a lawyer who was anticipating the reactions of other parents
rather than simply working with the family of the transgender student. “The
problem is you have people making decisions from the basis of fear and the
extremes, and that’s never good for kids,” Mr. Vannasdall said.

In California, the State Legislature passed a law
<https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1266>
two
years ago permitting transgender students to participate in sex-segregated
activities and use facilities that were consistent with their gender
identity in all schools. But opponents are mounting a plan to put an
initiative on the California ballot next fall that would direct all
students to use facilities that correspond with the gender on their birth
certificates.

“I am not questioning their sincerity,” said Karen England, spokeswoman for
Privacy for All, a group that is promoting the ballot initiative in
California. “But the reality of their biology is that their plumbing is
quite different, and I have a right to privacy, and I have the right for my
daughters and granddaughters to have the right to be in a bathroom or a
locker room without being exposed to the opposite gender.”

Jeff Johnston, an analyst at Focus on the Family, the conservative group
based in Colorado, said in an email that “girls should not have to risk
being exposed to boys in locker rooms, changing rooms and restrooms.”

School officials say that in cases where parents or students raise
concerns, they can work through them. In San Francisco, for example, a
group of Muslim students sought permission last year to pray during break
times and perform ritual cleansings in the bathrooms. But some of them were
concerned that if a transgender student entered the bathroom at the same
time, it would be inappropriate for the girls to share space with a
biological male.

“We talked about how this was a democracy and students have the right to go
to the bathroom,” said Kevin R. Gogin, director of safety and wellness
school health programs at the San Francisco Unified School District. After
discussions with the religious students, he said, they agreed that they
could seek privacy by using the private stalls for their cleansing rituals.

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In Los Angeles, where the district has had a policy allowing transgender
students to use bathrooms and locker rooms according to their gender
identity since 2004, Judy Chiasson, coordinator in the Human Relations,
Diversity and Equity Department for the Los Angeles Unified School
District, said that schools have had few complaints.

“All of our students tend to be pretty modest,” Ms. Chiasson said. She
added that unlike students in previous generations, even after physical
education classes or athletic practices, students today do not tend to
undress or shower in public facilities, and in bathrooms, students can use
private stalls. Because of this, she said, in many cases, students do not
even know whether another student is transgender or not.

A transgender student does not want “to invade anybody else’s privacy,” Ms.
Chiasson said. “She’s in the bathroom to do her business.”

The school district in Palatine, Ill., that was reproached by the Education
Department this week had required a transgender student to change her
clothes and shower separately from other students, causing her family to
raise the issue with federal officials. John Knight, director of the
L.G.B.T. Project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which
represented her, said concerns over the presence of transgender students in
locker rooms “is a made-up issue.”

“The kids who are most vulnerable are the transgender students,” he said.
“If a boy who’s transgender is comfortable to be in a boys’ restroom, he
should be allowed to be there.”

Catherine Lhamon, the Education Department’s assistant secretary for civil
rights, said it is possible to protect the rights of all students without
forcing transgender students to use different facilities.

“The school’s responsibility is to respect who that person is,” Ms. Lhamon
said. “And the school’s responsibility is that they do not teach
discrimination, but do teach civic engagement along with the three R’s.”

On Wed, Nov 4, 2015 at 6:24 PM, Ann O'Leary <[email-masked]>
wrote:

>
> http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1991-04-28/news/9104280615_1_equal-rights-amendment-senate-the-amendment-two-votes
>
> --
> Ann O'Leary
> Senior Policy Advisor
> Hillary for America
> Cell: 510-717-5518
>

-- 
Ann O'Leary
Senior Policy Advisor
Hillary for America
Cell: 510-717-5518