Transgender School Bathrooms: Comply or Revolt? Patch Poll

States considering North Carolina-styled bathroom bills requiring students use the toilets and locker rooms matching their birth gender got a stern warning Friday from the White House, which implied federal education funding could be yanked from public schools that fail to accommodate the needs of transgender students.

The U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Education jointly sent letters to every public school district in the country outlining guidelines for the accommodation of transgender students.

The agencies said the letter was intended to give school districts the information they need to "ensure that all students, including transgender students, can attend school in an environment free from discrimination based on sex," according to a joint news release from the education and justice departments.

"Schools receiving federal money may not discriminate based on a student’s sex, including a student’s transgender status. The guidance makes clear that both federal agencies treat a student’s gender identity as the student’s sex for purposes of enforcing Title IX."

In the most high-profile bathroom bill case, North Carolina and the Department of Justice have filed lawsuits against each other over the state's new law that restricts bathroom and locker-room usage for transgender people.

See Also

• White House Letter to Schools on Transgender Students: What to Know
• Ferndale Schools to Vote on LGBT Support
• For Transgender People, Lots More To Deal With Than Bathroom Access
• Royal Oak Commissioners Join Protest of NC 'Bathroom Bill'

Some Schools Already Changing Policies

John Austin, president of the state school board, told the Detroit Free Press the White House letter “does send a very powerful message” that schools “should take seriously that transgender kids exist and we’re going to do what we can at the state level to protect you.”

Some local school boards have already addressed the needs of transgender students, including Farmington Public Schools, where Mike Currie, 16, said administrators didn’t flinch at all when he told them he was making the transition from a girl, his birth gender, to his gender identity, a boy.

"I wasn’t expecting them to be like, 'OK ... you obviously are distraught by this. We’re going to help make it better,” Currie told the Free Press.

A junior at Farmington High School, Currie attributes an improvement in grades from at or near failing to A’s and B’s to the acceptance he feels. Though his school worked to accommodate his needs — including making sure that he was referred to as a male in staff emails and other communication — he thinks there’s more all schools can do to and that it’s appropriate for the federal government to step in.

North Carolina-Style Bill in Michigan?

State Sen. Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba, said this spring he plans to introduce legislation requiring students to use bathrooms corresponding to their birth identity. Casperson’s intent is to derail controversial guidelines from the State Board of Education released in February — more than three months before Friday’s White house letter — to make Michigan schools more welcoming and safer for LGBTQ students.

Casperson — along with Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton and Rep. Phil Potvin, R-Cadillac — asked the state school board to reconsider the policies during a six-hour public comment session earlier this week that elicited 67 comments against the guidelines and 49 comments in support of them.

Colbeck told the Free Press Friday called federal involvement “another attempt to legislate without the involvement of Congress,” and said it “should be opposed and ignored by all schools in the state of Michigan.”

Potvin, who believes gender identity is a person choice that is a personal rather than public responsibility, said President Barack Obama “is way over his legal bounds.”

“It's a small minority looking for the public to be responsible for them, when they need to be personally responsible for themselves,” Potvin told the Free Press.

A new CNN/ORC national poll found 57 percent of Americans don’t agree with bathroom bills that restrict where transgender people can use the bathroom, compared with 38 percent who do. The results reflected party differences, with 62 percent of Democrats, 58 percent of independents and 48 percent of Republicans opposing bathroom bills.

What do you think? Take our poll below and tell us what you think in the comments.

Image credit: Scott Beale via Flickr / Creative Commons