Will the new Title IX rules allow men to use girls’ bathrooms in schools? Absolutely not.
Adult men are not allowed to use student bathrooms. So what is Title IX and what is all the fuss about?
For more than 50 years Title IX has provided protection against sexual discrimination in schools that accept federal funds. It has also led to the proliferation of female sports in our country; in fact, it is what helped women earn a majority of the 40 gold medals that America won during the recent Paris Olympics.
The new rules also aim to ensure that no person experience sex-based harassment or violence in our schools. The rule changes clarified that the protections extend to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. They also provide schools with information on how to meet these obligations with appropriate discretion and flexibility.
More: Sarasota School Board rejects Title IX protections against gender identity discrimination
Some local politicians are trying to scare people with wild claims that school officials will now allow men into a girls’ bathroom and enable them to potentially assault girls. But adult males, no matter how they are dressed, are not allowed in student bathrooms at schools. Since most people aren’t familiar with school bathroom rules, conservatives use this as another way to keep voters from electing “liberals and their ‘woke’ ideology.”
However, they are doing this expense of some of our most vulnerable students.
Real people, real stories
A child who is transgender feels that the gender/sex they were assigned at birth doesn’t match their gender identity or how they feel on the inside. A transgender child doesn’t just wake up one day and decide they want to change. It is usually a years-long struggle that affects less than 1% of the population.
If a transgender child is lucky, that individual has loving parents who can afford the counselling and doctor visits needed to help them transition. In addition, those loving parents are also willing to register their child with the name and gender that they feel is best for them.
The new Title IX rules give schools the direction needed to use appropriate discretion in such cases. The child uses a single-stall bathroom or one that matches their gender identity. Only those who need to know are notified of the situation. The transgender student melts into the rest of the student body – and life goes with little discussion about their gender status.
However, Florida’s current “Don’t Say Gay” laws say that a student must be registered under the name and sex assigned at birth, even if the student has undergone hormone therapy or operations that would conform their body to their gender identity – or would reflect the gender that appears on an updated birth certificate.
This is bound to lead to discrimination, bullying and possible violence against a trans student.
I first became aware of the term “transgender” when Nate, a trans boy, came before the Sarasota County School Board for permission to use the boys’ bathrooms. I admit that I didn’t understand what transgender meant or the problems these students face before Nate had to courage to come before the board. However, I felt it was my duty to understand the issue before voting on it.
Trans students just want to be able to use a bathroom without having have explain over and over that they are transgender and therefore should be in this or that bathroom. They just want to blend in at school like everyone else, without being labeled “that trans kid.”
With his mother’s permission, I privately asked Nate when he first thought he was a boy and if he was gay. He rolled his eyes and told me, “It’s not who I go to bed with – it’s who I go to bed as.” He said he always thought of himself as a boy and hated the girl he saw in the mirror as a child. It wasn’t until his family heard the term “transgender” in a movie that they knew he wasn’t alone.
He started counseling and hormone treatments. As he was dressing and looking more and more like a boy, he was getting questioning looks from girls in the bathrooms. He simply wanted to use the boys’ bathrooms without having to constantly disclose that he was transgender.
The board also heard from a middle school student born as a boy, but felt he was really a girl inside. As he let his hair grow long it emphasized his girlish facial features, and he was accosted by other boys at camp who said he didn’t belong in the boys’ bathroom. They knocked him to the floor and pulled down his pants. The student’s parents have been working with their child to address these gender identity issues – and to avoid having to ever again suffer such humiliating treatment.
How are Sarasota’s teachers supposed to address issues like these with students in a respectful and age-appropriate way that doesn’t violate the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” laws – or the student’s privacy?
Hurting trans kids for political points
Unfortunately, too many politicians don’t take the time to learn the facts or listen to the people who are living with these issues. For example, Sarasota County School Board Member Bridget Ziegler even used social media last year to post a photo of her proudly wearing a T-shirt that read “Real Women Aren’t Men.”
That’s why when Ziegler introduced a board resolution in May to oppose the new Title IX rules, I knew it would be used as a weapon against local candidates who support LGBTQ rights. And it was. I just underestimated how viciously it would be used against them.
I support LGBTQ rights and am dismayed how some conservatives have turned against Sarasota’s transgender students to score political points. These children deserve our compassion and protection, not our scorn – and not laws and resolutions that put them in harm’s way. Politicians in our community and across Florida shouldn’t use their power to score political points regardless of who is hurt in the process.
They need to stop and think about how their actions affect real people.
Shirley Brown was a member of the Sarasota County School Board from 2006 to 2022. She also served in the Florida House from 1992 to 2000.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota’s transgender students targeted to score political points
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