Transgender rights spark debate
By Christopher Cousins
BDN Staff
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/137047.htmlAUGUSTA, Maine — New guidelines under consideration by the Maine Human Rights Commission designed to clarify the rights of transgender students in Maine has sparked a passionate debate over what some feel are impractical or abhorrent new requirements for public schools.
The commission's proposed guidelines, which are scheduled for further consideration on March 1, state that transgender students are guaranteed access to public school bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams based on whatever gender they consider themselves to be. That means a boy who identifies himself as a girl is by law allowed to use girls bathrooms, locker rooms and participate on girls sports teams, or vice versa. Being "transgender" means having a gender identity that is opposite a person's biologically assigned sex at birth.
