School's transgender ruling: fairness or discrimination?
By Josh Levs. Ed Payne and Ashley Fantz, CNN
updated 6:10 AM EST, Fri March 1, 2013
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/28/us/colorado-transgender-girl-school/index.html(CNN) -- A Colorado school's ruling over a transgender child has sparked questions that could affect schools all over the country.
Which bathroom should be used by a child who identifies as a different gender from his or her body? Where's the line between accommodation and discrimination? At what point is a child old enough for that to even be an issue?
The case focuses on Coy Mathis, a 6-year-old born with a boy's body. She identifies as a girl, and her family is raising her as a girl.
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Gender identity not just body parts
By Donna Rose, Special to CNN
updated 4:00 PM EST, Thu February 28, 2013
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/28/opinion/rose-coy-transgender-children/index.htmlEditor's note: Donna Rose is an author, educator and a former member of the Human Rights Campaign Business Council. She is a male-to-female transsexual and an advocate and spokesperson for transgender people and issues.
(CNN) -- Part of being a child is developing your identity. School can teach you knowledge. Society can teach you what it expects of you. But, once you develop a sense of yourself, no one and nothing can tell you who you are. You come to know that -- to your core.
When a child's sense of self develops in ways that are traditional and unremarkable, nobody takes much notice. But when it happens in ways that challenge traditional norms or expectations, people often try to "correct" it.
Such is the heart of a controversy brewing in Colorado involving a first-grader and, of all things, a bathroom.
