America’s students are heading back to school, and the transgender bathroom debate is still far from over.
During President Barack Obama’s final year in office, the Departments of Education and Justice issued a joint statement that would allow transgender students to use the restroom that corresponded with their gender identity. A month after President Donald Trump took office, the agencies rescinded the guidelines by letter to schools districts, citing faulty logic and a lack of research on the subject.
Without federal guidelines in place, individual states are grappling with the issue of transgender bathroom debate on their own, with rules fluctuating between cities and sometimes even between school districts. But recent transgender bathroom debates appear to be favoring the overriding preference to use the bathroom corresponding to gender identity.
Texas Bathroom Bill Opposed by Business Community
A contentious fight in the Texas legislature appears to be ending, as a bill that would require students to use the bathroom that corresponds with the gender on their birth certificate will most likely not be voted on.
The bill passed in the house, amid emotional testimony from transgender people and allies, as well as vocal opposition from the business community. Similar to what occurred in North Carolina, many companies and athletic organizations said they would resist doing business in Texas if the bathroom bill was pursued and passed.
As the Texas special legislative session ends this week, there is little hope that a transgender bathroom bill will be passed.
The bathroom bill in this session is dead and buried with dirt over its coffin,” Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston, said in an interview with Reuters.
Transgender Students Successfully Sue School District for Rights
Three former students at a Pennsylvania high school sued the school district when they were forbidden to use the bathroom that corresponded to their gender identity. Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that the “district had not demonstrated its policy advances an important governmental interest.”
Juliet Evancho, sister of America’s Got Talent contestant Jackie Evancho, who sang at President Trump’s inauguration ball, was one of the plaintiffs, along with fellow classmate Elissa Ridenour and another student who only wished to be identified as A.S.
No one should have to go through what we went through and I’m so happy that transgender students at Pine-Richland High will no longer be discriminated against,” Elissa Ridenour said in a statement. “All of us had been using the restrooms that match who we are with no problems until some parents and outside groups complained. But, I’m glad the school district finally did the right thing.”
The federal ruling requires the school district to allow students to use the restroom that corresponds to their “consistently and uniformly asserted gender identity.”
Equality Groups Applaud New Jersey for Supporting LGBT Students
In July, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill requiring schools to acknowledge and allow students to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity. Christie, a Republican, was praised by equality groups and progressives for standing up for LGBT youth.
These guidelines are needed to ensure that transgender students can safely be themselves without fear of being persecuted, and can help promote a culture of understanding and acceptance that will hopefully influence how students treat each other in and outside of school,” said Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, one of the sponsors of the measure.