Parents in Uproar After 15-Year-Old Trans Girl Wins Right to Use Locker Room

On January 10, indignant parents of precious cisgender teenagers gathered at their local library in collective outrage after their suburban Illinois high school granted a transgender female student access to the girls locker room. NBC Chicago reported that, after a years long battle in School District 211, the anonymous girl used the locker room last friday. If you're wondering why the bathroom practices of a teenage girl are any of your business—let alone national news—the reason is because trans kids are caught in the crosshairs of an antiquated political controversy coming to a head today.

The trans girl, known as "Student A", allied with the ACLU of Illinois and sued the school last year. As WGNTV reported, "A federal complaint was filed accusing the district of violating Title IX, the law banning discrimination in schools on the basis of gender. In November the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) agreed the district was in violation." After the ED stepped in, D211 was informed that if they don't allow Student A free use of the women's locker room, it could cost them federal funding.

Yet, as the Daily Herald of suburban Chicago reported, the ED's interpretation of Title IX may not hold up in federal court. "A pair of federal courts this year—in the cases Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board in Virginia and Johnston v. University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania found that Title IX does not prohibit schools from limiting access on the basis of a person's sex."

Following the agreement between District 211 and the OCR, the principal of a high school in the district sent a letter to parents outlining the move to accommodate trans students. That letter was later posted by members of D211 Parents for Privacy in their Facebook group. It read, in part, "In responding to students coming forward with transgender identity, we are again reminded that we are at our best when we work together to develop creative, workable solutions that serve the interests and welfare of all students. As agreed with the OCR, the District will soon provide a transgender student access to the locker room consistent with the student's gender identity based on the student's request to change in private changing stations within the locker room."

One father wasn't having that—not at all. He responded directly to the school principal, his letter also later published in the Facebook group. "The rights of my daughters should NOT be trampled on by one confused individual for the sake of that individual's comfort," the upset dad wrote, adding, "I will NOT be bullied by them into adopting their opinions just because they insist. Nor will I accept the use of female bathrooms and locker rooms at my daughters' school by males who wish they were female."

"As a school board member in another district in the area, I have followed the controversy with much interest," Janice Krinsky, a woman who lives in a neighboring district, told Broadly. "From what I have read and heard, I believe that the administrative leadership and board leadership have shown a great deal of sensitivity and compassion to the situation this young transgender girl finds herself in." Krinsky noted that, despite the backlash of some families, many others have been supportive of Student A. "It's not really surprising, given the nature of the controversy, to find polarization," she said.

According to her, this case has become incredibly politicized. "Unfortunately, a conservative group from the South got involved and started turning this into a political issue of conservative rights, rather than the personal and medically-based issue that it is." Then, when the ACLU stepped in, the media portrayed District 211 as "uninformed, insensitive, and discriminatory," Krinsky explained. "It is unfortunate that people want to politicize a deeply personal issue such as this instead of focusing on the best needs of the child."

Brynn Tannehill is a board member of SPARTA, an organization that advocates for the rights of LGBT people in the military. According to her, the controversy surrounding this case is unwarranted. Critics who suggest that transgender inclusive policies put cisgender students at risk or somehow compromise their rights are wrong, she told Broadly. "The LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) has had policies recognizing students gender identities for over a decade without incident," Tannehill explained. "Transgender students, however, are at very high risk of bullying. Sometimes the worst bullies are the adults." Tannehill added that she is "in contact with the mother of a 7 year old transgender girl in Ohio, who told me about how an adult man threatened to kill her daughter if he ever saw her coming out of the girls' bathroom."

Inclusive policies are important. One alternative is often proposed: the use of a separate facility. But that is not ideal, Tannehill said. According to her, this can be a form of segregation and discouraging to the student. "It also has the psychological effect of telling a student they're not really who they say they are, or [that they] are dangerous, or that people who hate and fear transgender people are more important than they are," Tannehill said. "Being 15 is pretty angsty. Try doing it when every day you're reminded of the fact you're a second-class citizen and that people do, in fact, hate you just for existing."

According to Krinsky, Fremd High was always willing to accommodate Student A. "The district already agreed to make private changing spaces within the gang locker room available to any students who wanted to use them," she said. "The issue was whether or not [Student A] needed to be compelled to use them. The ACLU initially argued against this, but [Student A] ultimately agreed."

"I don't know that there really are that many areas of the country where people have struggled to build an understanding of what it means to be transgender," Krinsky said, adding that most people probably don't know a transgender person or don't realize that someone they know is trans. She thinks self-education is a necessary prerequisite to progress. "And it has to be taken down to the human level. We are ultimately talking about real people, not abstract concepts," Krinsky explained. "People fear what they don't understand. Look at how far our country has come in affording equal rights to gays and lesbians. And that acceptance grew when people realized that their friends, family members, or neighbors were gay. So it became personal. I'm hoping it's only a matter of time before barriers facing transgender people [also] fall."

When asked whether or not the use of Title IX in this case will hold up in court, Tannehill responded, "This is the million dollar question." She pointed out that, in the previous decade, a different law was used to protect transgender people: Title IV of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which protects people from discrimination in employment. The portion of that law that covers sex has been successfully wagered to protect transgender people on the job, Tannehill explained. "It's almost settled law at this point." But, she added, "Title XII doesn't have the same legal history of protecting against discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes. Nor is there much in the way of legal history protecting transgender people with regards to public accommodations. The DOE interprets Title IX to protect transgender students, and most districts choose not to fight it out in court."

Tannehill questioned how prohibitive bathroom policies, if successfully passed, would even be imposed. "Bathroom bills are vindictive on the surface, and absurd underneath," she said. "How do you propose to verify who belongs in what bathroom? Strip searches? Or expensive DNA tests on every gender nonconforming person spotted in a bathroom? Maybe subpoenaing medical records of every short guy with a beard using a men's room?"

"I understand why some parents think this, since it's hard not to see anatomy as destiny, but there is a basic misunderstanding at the root of it," Krisnky said. "This transgender child is not a boy. She is a girl and has identified as a girl for her entire life."

Krisnky is more well researched than many other allies of—let alone detractors to—the transgender community. "Why does this happen?" she pondered rhetorically. "It can be caused by, for example, genetic mutations, chromosomal abnormalities, or during development in the womb. Regardless of why it happens, the gender identity of the person is what matters. They need to stop thinking of her as a boy, but as the girl she is."