THE Battle of the Bathrooms looks set to continue in the US after the Obama administration ruled that transgender students should be allowed to use a toilet that matches their gender identity.
The guidance directly opposes a state law passed in North Carolina that has caused widespread outrage and protests from musicians such as Bruce Springsteen as well as large companies like Apple and Facebook.
Republicans in the state passed a law restricting transgender people to using toilets that correspond to their birth gender, on the grounds that allowing transgender people to use facilities matching their gender identity would be “dangerous”.
The federal government has now warned that if public schools do not respect gender identity they will be denied funding.
Furious Republicans have condemned the threat.
“This will be the beginning of the end of the public school system as we know it,” said Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, right. “President Obama, in the dark of the night – without consulting Congress, without consulting educators, without consulting parents – decides to issue an executive order, forcing transgender policies on schools and on parents who clearly don’t want it.”
While North Carolina was the first state to put through a law forcing transgender people to use public toilets that match their birth rather than their identified gender, other areas of the US have been considering the move.
WHAT IS THE ADVICE?
THE Obama guidelines are to be sent to all school districts across the US. They make plain that school chiefs are legally obliged to safeguard the wellbeing of trans students and will be in danger of having their federal funding axed if they do not.
North Carolina could lose as much as $4.8billion (£3.3bn) in federal government funding if the law is not repealed.
“A school may provide separate facilities on the basis of sex, but must allow transgender students access to such facilities consistent with their gender identity,” the guidelines state.
“A school may not require transgender students to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity or to use individual-user facilities when other students are not required to do so.”
The guidelines state that transgender students must have access to the toilets of their choice “even in circumstances in which other students, parents or community members raise objections or concerns".
They continue: “As is consistently recognised in civil rights cases, the desire to accommodate others’ discomfort cannot justify a policy that singles out and disadvantages a particular class of students.”
US attorney general Loretta Lynch, right, said: “There is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex. This guidance gives administrators, teachers and parents the tools they need to protect transgender students from peer harassment and to identify and address unjust school policies.”
WHO IS REALLY IN DANGER?
THE federal government guidance is a relief for transgender people, although a legal battle between the federal government and the state of North Carolina is still ongoing, with the former claiming the latter has violated the Civil Rights Act.
The transgender community points to research that shows they are far more likely to be attacked using toilets that correspond with their birth gender than if they are allowed to choose for themselves.
“Bathroom violence is real,” said web designer Emily Waggoner, who now lives in Boston but was raised in North Carolina. “It happens to people in the trans community, so we were really nervous and worried about our friends there. The more we talked about it, the more helpless we felt.”
“Devastated” by the North Carolina law, she created an online map that shows the transgender community where it is safe to go to the toilet in the state.
Businesses that have made their bathrooms transgender friendly or gender-non-conforming are identified on the map with little toilet roll icons.
While she admits it could be used by protesting anti-trans groups, Waggoner said it was important to express solidarity. “There’s safety in numbers too," she said. "The more businesses that get added, the more we’ll see coming out in support.”
So far about 100 sites are marked on the map and nearly 100,000 people have visited the page.
WHY IS IT SUCH AN ISSUE?
IN the UK it is legal for transgender people to use the public toilet that corresponds with their gender identity, but even universities in the States do not always cater for the community despite “shit-in” protests.
Anti-trans campaigners have made adverts that play on fears of sexual predators, with one in Texas showing an adult male following a little girl into a toilet cubicle.
“Any man, at any time, could enter a woman’s bathroom simply by claiming to be a woman that day,” says the female narrator. “Even registered sex offenders could follow women or young girls into the bathroom.”
Yet a survey of transgender people commissioned by US think tank UCLA found nearly 70 per cent of those responding had been verbally harassed in gender-segregated toilets, with nearly 10 per cent saying they had been physically assaulted.
Campaigners for gender-neutral toilets say that denying safe access to facilities increases feelings of isolation, segregation and depression. Attempted suicide within the trans community is very high, according to a study by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Williams Institute – 42 per cent among trans women and 46 per cent among trans men.
“Can you imagine every minute of your day wondering where you’re going to use the toilets next?” asked activist Wayne M Maines, the father of a transgender woman. “It’s not only a question of safety, but a question of how you can grow as a person if you’re always thinking about where you can use the facilities.
“While we are busy fighting about the basic right to use a restroom, bigger issues are being ignored. I’m worried about transgender people not having access to the right medical care, that they can be fired in many states for just being transgender.
“I want to fight for the things that will allow transgender people to enjoy life, to grow old, thrive and be happy – and that includes the right to use the toilet without fear.”
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