Judge denies transgender student's request to use boys' bathroom
http://www.stripes.com/news/us/judge-denies-transgender-student-s-request-to-use-boys-bathroom-1.366581
Stripes/By Julie Zauzmer The Washington Post Published: September 5, 2015
"A federal judge has denied a transgender teenager's request to allow him to use the same bathroom as his peers at his public school in Virginia.
Instead, the judge ruled Friday, the teenager must continue using a separate, private bathroom that he has said makes him feel "singled out and humiliated."
Gavin Grimm, a teenage boy who was born female, used the boys' bathroom for seven weeks with no problem, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought a lawsuit against the Gloucester County School Board on his behalf."
I feel very surprised. Usually the fuss is about transwomen.
The fuss is usually about a trans woman wanting to use the ladies room and the fuss is about protecting the fragile helpless, weak, terrified women. Protect them from the unstoppable, god like, rape mechines that are all men.. by which they mean trans women.
This case is the same thing only instead of misgendering the trans woman as a male predator and painting all women as helpless before the trans persons wrath and power, the trans man is being viewed as the weak helpless woman that must be protected from her own poor choices.
basiclly its the same sexist bigoted stupidity just directed the other way around. Every argument is about how unsafe it would be for the young man in question with the occasional minor point of "but then what if this girl...I mean transsexual person decided to show her...his...there vajay jay to my 16 year old son!!!!" the arguments are so predictable I have not even read the article yet and I know that's how it goes.
Welcome to the world, men tell women. "we made a bunch of laws restricting everything you might do to protect you from men" then follow it up with "wait why don't you trust strange men you meet?"
sorry about this post but I get very very sick of how these things always seem to go.
Serena
Quote from: Valwen on September 06, 2015, 08:58:35 PM
Welcome to the world, men tell women. "we made a bunch of laws restricting everything you might do to protect you from men" then follow it up with "wait why don't you trust strange men you meet?"
And the world where cis people tell trans people who they are and make up laws and policies to back up their misguided patronizing view of us.
This will continue until we stand up for our rights, something our community seems unwilling to do.
I'd be curious to see the actual hard-number academic research showing the number of sexual assaults committed by transgendered people in bathrooms (zero? I'm guessing zero). And if the strawman argument against these mystery rapists falls apart, then what?
The whole need for separate bathrooms in the first place seems unfounded to me. It's like politicians live in some fantasy world where girls don't know that boys pee standing up and boys don't know that girls poop.
Quote from: purpleshiny on September 07, 2015, 12:20:25 PM
And if the strawman argument against these mystery rapists falls apart, then what?
I doubt it matters. It's an argument based on emotion, not any sort of understanding, facts, or logic.
Trans people scary, ooga booga!
Absolutely agree with everything said, and I agree that the ruling is almost certainly both transphobic and sexist ("Oh no, girl in the boy's!"). Unfortunately, it probably should be mentioned that I know several trans guys who have been assaulted in the men's room.
Not that I think that fact should have any impact on the ruling, and obviously the young man a) knows his community best and b) has been using the bathroom without any trouble. It's just a thing that actually is relevant in some guys' lives. It's awful because no one wants to give credibility to offensive and upsetting rulings like this one, so no one talks about it, but. Idk. Does happen.
Cis men get assaulted in men's rooms too. I have always been wary of highway rest stops ever since my folks told me about some of the crimes that happen in such places. Women assault women in restrooms too. People are violent and arbitrary laws don't hinder sadistic impulses.
On a side note, my last trip to a men's room back in April was a highway rest stop. I used a stall I had been in before on a previous trip. Over the top of the misspelled racial slur I had partially erased on my last trip was scrawled "f#@$ot panty boy". That was all I needed to see to know I was done with that whole side of the plumbing.
Trans people do get assaulted in public restrooms but have virtually never been the assaulter. Zero in all the states and school systems that have made it legal for trans people to use the gender identifying restrooms.
But on the subject of trans people standing up for our rights. we have several special hurdles other mistreated groups dont have to deal with. First is our numbers there are so very few transgender people out there, even compared to gay and lesbian we are a tiny fraction. LGB people are sometimes said to be 10% of the population give or take a percentage.
Second we are in general very fractured rarely in one place some may be the only trans person for a great distance around, others may be in a area with a modest population but rarely do they interact. Aside from our shared gender identity issues we don't often have much else in common and outside of support groups we usually have little reason to see each other. Gay and lesbian Identifying people often meet for social reasons they are drawn together.
Finally most other mistreated groups there status is either clearly visible to everyone such as with ethnicity or like the gay community once there out of the closet its a permenant thing. But many trans people come out and after several years of struggle reach a point where there trans status matters only to doctors and possibly lovers so they stop talking about it. I can't count the number of transgender run or related blogs, web pages, pod casts, web comics and other social media that I have seen appear for a few years and then when being trans when transisioning is no longer important to the creator they die off or change. I see no problem with this but it is one more factor in the difficulty to struggle for our rights.
One final issue, with anxiety and sever depression so common among trans people public speaking is a difficult or impossible position. Which may explain why so many choose the internet as a means of expression. This breeds a secondary problem, though many web activists have valid and powerful points the law makers in most countries are comprised of a older crowd who find the internet a novelty not a serious platform for political views and discount anything "those lazy kids on there computers" have to say.
With any group only a part of them will have the confidence, emotional stability, and knowledge to be activists, with such a small starting group. With such fractured connections and with many members who previously fought for us later becoming exhausted by the struggle and fading from the public light its easy to see how though needed the battle for trans rights is more difficult than it might appear on the surface.
Serena
OK, I did a little more digging. If I understand this ruling, it only covers injunctive relief. I.e. will the plaintiff suffer irreparable harm by using a gender neutral bathroom while the case progresses? If I understand correctly, the ruling takes no position on the merits of the case, and just on how much harm a delay in using the men's restroom would cause.
Folks with actual legal knowledge: is this correct?
When I came out at my work, the subject of bathrooms came up...I was offered a bathroom which would've been designated "unisex".
I refused to accept it, for two reasons:
First, the "unisex" designation would be quickly forgotten in common usage, and the room would be called "the ->-bleeped-<- room" (imho), and
Secondly, I was transitioning so I would be perceived as much as possible as a woman. Using a "separate but equal" facility was not an option.
I understand some cis-people are uncomfortable with us in "their" places, but they have to overcome their bias, because they are directly harming us with their fears.
I would advise taking it to SCOTUS...I hear they frown on separate but equal arguments.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The article failed to mention the rants the judge went off on about topics completely unrelated to the case (immigration, gay marriage, etc...) or that he stated that he had made his decision before the case even began. He needs to be removed from the bench.
Being the fact this is in a school
setting, I will explain how:
*The School Views It*
The School will want to stress that having
the students use their born gender bathrooms
protects them from anything awkward; that sometimes
be it a bully can become potential harmful towards the
student whom is discovered using a different bathroom.
So I feel like the school is not attacking the fact that the students
transgender but more the schools messed up way to put safe guards
in place to protect the transgender student in question.
My view:
Just to clarify; I'm Trans-men. That being said I feel very sad
for the kid. He's not hurting anything. I have had a few awkward moments
when I was first starting transitioning and I was standing washing my hands
in the mens bathroom and someone came in and loudly refer to me as my
old name. I was like Oh Crap. I ran out of the bathroom as even for adults if someone
notices you don't quite belong in that bathroom... at least in my case your safety
could be at stake.