On Friday, the Obama Administration issued guidance allowing transgender students to use the school bathroom of the gender that they identify with. A letter from the Departments of Education and Justice went out to all schools on Friday to ensure that transgender people were not discriminated against or bullied. This announcement was a result of the debate over the issue, especially between the administration and North Carolina over the House Bill 2. The guidance also mentions privacy rights, education rights, and sex-segregated athletics. In all of these, transgender students are guaranteed the right to be who they want to be, while also being protected from peer harassment.
This long debate has been a lot like the debates over integration/segregation in the late 1800s and early 1900s. After all slaves were freed and black men were given the right to vote and become citizens protected by law, white people did everything they could to remain separate from black people. This was followed by the Civil Rights Movement which was basically a fight for the integration of public places and more rights for blacks. Just as transgenders are now able to use the bathroom that defines what gender they identify as, blacks eventually got to use the same bathroom as whites, that defined their gender, not their color. I think this is much needed guidance.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/12/politics/transgender-bathrooms-obama-administration/index.html
No comments:
Post a Comment