The Debate over Gender Neutral Bathrooms in the Schools

Intercultural Communication: Balancing the Rights of Transgender Americans

1) post your critical understanding and analysis of transgender communities' current struggle to be accepted into the society, with a specific focus on the debate over transgender students' use of school bathrooms,

While Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex, it does not specifically address issues of gender identity, meaning that Obama-era regulations which allow for separate facilities based on sex only reman the law of the land. Nevertheless, despite arguments from transgender advocates and the transgender community that transgender students’ access to bathrooms should correspond with their gender identity, critics of transgender access maintain that the current interpretation by the U.S. Department of Education does not violate the law.

By any measure, these are controversial issues that demand legitimate debate and thoughtful solutions, and transgender access to public bathrooms based on their gender identity are becoming increasingly commonplace in American society. This same level of acceptance, however, does not necessarily extend into the schools. Indeed, many older Americans may forget what school was really like and simply want to impose their rigid policies on everyone irrespective of the consequences. This so-called “bathroom debate” represents a microcosm of larger American societal tensions which underscore long-standing disagreements concerning gender identity, personal privacy, and civil rights.

It is reasonable to suggest that many people are scared of what they do not understand and this is the situation for millions of Americans today who are confronted with fundamental changes in demographics and sexual orientations of its 300 million-plus population. Balancing the interest and rights of the transgender community in general and public school students in particular requires innovative solutions rather than reinterpretations of existing regulations that respond to the latest Overton window priorities.

2) post your view on this article; do you agree with the opinion expressed by this article? Please explain why you agree or disagree in detailed account

In their article, Turner and Kamenetz (2018) highlight the significant shift in federal policy from the Obama-era about transgender students’ rights concerning bathroom access in public schools. This significant change reflects ongoing societal debates about gender identity, civil rights, and educational policy that continue unto the present. Beyond the factual reporting, the main opinion expressed in the article was from Eliza Byard, the executive director of a pro-LGBTQ student support organization who charged that the “cruel new policy flies in the face of the highest court rulings on this issue, which found unequivocally that denying transgender students appropriate bathroom access is a violation of Title IX.”

Despite the controversial nature of the debate, I disagree with Byard’s assessment since it ignores the rights of other students who only want to perform their toileting at school among members of their own biological sex. Here again, adult lawmakers may have forgotten just how traumatic school can be for young learners, and heaping another source of anxiety onto their already-full emotional plates seems cruel and unfair. Therefore, I agree with the change in the interpretation of Title IX by the U.S. Department of Education, but more needs to be done as discussed below.