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Winter Break: Making the Case for LGBTQ Youth in Schools

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December 23, 2015
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Aisha Davis

We are quickly approaching the end of the year and many students are leaving school for winter break. At this time, when many of us are reflecting on the past year and celebrating holidays, we must remember that we still have much work to do to ensure that all students feel safe and respected in their schools. As part of this effort, we must continue to fight the harmful and discriminatory efforts to prevent transgender students from using the bathrooms and locker rooms associated with their gender.

Recently, High School District 211 in Palatine, Illinois, has been the site of a particularly contentious battle around allowing a young transgender girl to use the girls’ locker rooms. Student A, who is a minor and has remained anonymous through this ordeal, was denied access to the proper locker room for two years. Following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), District 211 became the first school district found in violation of civil rights laws over trans issues. In the first week of December, the District 211 School Board and OCR reached a settlement to bring the district into compliance with civil rights law. That same week, however, District 211 threatened to retract the settlement because they felt OCR had mischaracterized the agreement.

In the end, the settlement remained in effect, but not before a school board meeting where hundreds of people came to voice their opinion on the settlement. Those gathered in support of Student A included other students in the district, residents of the district, and supporters from a number of local organizations, such as the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU of Illinois, who represents Student A. These supporters requested that the school board uphold the settlement and ensure that Student A would not have to use a separate facility, which could continue to alienate her.

The ACLU of Illinois has further stated that “[t]hreatening to cut off our client’s access to the locker room if she does not promise to use the privacy curtains exclusively simple moves her current segregation from a separate room to a space inside the locker room.” The show of support on behalf of Student A illustrates the movement toward better access to appropriate facilities for young people who are transgender – but those who were opposed to the settlement voiced the same disproven rhetoric that demonizes transgender people of all ages.

Lambda Legal does important work on this issue across the country. Last week, we sent a letter to Rep. Bud Hulsey in Tennessee requesting that he refrain from introducing legislation that would similarly keep trans students from using restrooms in accordance with their gender. Legislating against trans students further stigmatizes them and may make them feel unsafe in a building that is supposed to represent a place of growth, learning and development. In our letter to Rep. Hulsey, we discuss the numerous instances of superintendents, principals, school board members, general counsel and social workers across the country who support trans students using the bathroom associated with their gender.

In October, Lambda Legal, along with the Transgender Law Center and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of school administrators from California, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia demonstrating that schools that allow trans students to use the proper restroom create “an environment that is safe and affirming.”

As we look back on all of the great strides we made over the last year, we hope that 2016 will bring important legal victories to ensure that all students feel safe and affirmed in school. As a place where students spend a significant amount of time, schools need to be a space where every student can learn without being encumbered by disrespect and dehumanization. Now, as we prepare to begin another semester and another year, we must remain focused on moving toward a society that gives all students the space and opportunity to thrive.

More resources: Know Your Rights: Transgender Youth and Know Your Rights: LGBTQ Teens and Young Adults.

If you have been experiencing discrimination in school, please contact our Help Desk.

Please join Lambda Legal today and help us advocate for LGBTQ youth in schools! Your membership gift will be matched dollar for dollar by the $1.25 million matching challenge from the estate of John Barham and Dick Auer.