tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/bathroom-bill-26268/articlesBathroom bill – The Conversation2021-06-25T12:20:38Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1583472021-06-25T12:20:38Z2021-06-25T12:20:38ZYouth sports and other challenges of a nonbinary world – 3 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406209/original/file-20210614-130393-1etbin9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C7315%2C4891&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The issue of trans rights was bound to butt up against realms of American society separated by gender.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/traffic-light-in-central-london-royalty-free-image/918973026?adppopup=true">Jon Cartwright/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While recognition and acceptance of people who don’t identify as strictly male or female is growing, many aspects of American society, from <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-linguists-it-was-the-decade-of-the-pronoun-128606">language</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-case-for-boosting-wnba-player-salaries-100805">sports</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-we-tie-unisex-fashion-trends-to-gender-equality-46720">fashion</a>, remain structured or separated by gender.</p>
<p>So when people decide to change genders – or not identify with a gender at all – it can create a host of administrative, legal and ethical challenges.</p>
<p>At The Conversation U.S., we asked scholars from different disciplines to explore what happens when trans people try to assert their rights in a binary society.</p>
<h2>1. The bathroom brouhaha</h2>
<p>A few years ago, public restrooms were the focal point of transgender rights, with support for “<a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/explaining-bathroom-bills-transgender-rights-and-equal-protection">bathroom bills</a>” – legislation that requires people to use the public restroom of their sex assigned at birth – serving as a barometer of conservative credentials. Most of the legislation that was proposed ended up dying out, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/01/468732723/south-dakota-s-transgender-bathroom-bill-hits-deadline-for-governor">vetoed</a> or <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/03/30/north-carolina-lawmakers-say-theyve-agreed-on-a-deal-to-repeal-the-bathroom-bill/">repealed</a>.</p>
<p>That might be because, from a public policy point of view, policing bathrooms is almost impossible, while it’s difficult to argue that letting trans people use the bathroom of their choice infringes on anyone’s rights. </p>
<p>Plus, the practice of separating bathrooms by sex in the first place was grounded in beliefs that would strike most people as outdated. As law professor Terry S. Kogan has written, it emerged out of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-did-public-bathrooms-get-to-be-separated-by-sex-in-the-first-place-59575">the “separate spheres” ideology of the 19th century</a>, which advanced the view of women as “inherently weaker” and needing “protective, home-like havens” in public places, whether it was at restaurants, at the workplace or in restrooms.</p>
<p>But the issue of trans rights was bound to butt up against other realms of American society separated by gender. Arguably none is more complicated than sports. </p>
<h2>2. Sports a trickier matter</h2>
<p>Unlike bathrooms, the rationale for separating sports leagues by sex isn’t based on obsolete cultural norms; instead, <a href="https://web.law.duke.edu/sites/default/files/centers/sportslaw/comparingathleticperformances.pdf">it’s grounded in science</a>. Meanwhile, the existence of funding for separate male and female sports teams at the amateur level, <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/interath.html">enshrined in Title IX of the Civil Rights Act</a>, represents a triumph of the women’s rights movement.</p>
<p>As ethics and public policy professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aOL3qs8AAAAJ&hl=en">Chris W. Surprenant</a> explains, trans girls and women – those assigned male at birth but who transition – possess a competitive advantage against biological girls and women. </p>
<p>“This advantage isn’t simply a difference in degree,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/striking-a-balance-between-fairness-in-competition-and-the-rights-of-transgender-athletes-159685">Surprenant writes</a>. “It’s not just that male athletes are bigger, faster and stronger. It’s a difference in kind. Pound for pound, male bodies are more athletic.”</p>
<p>“Few would care about how to best accommodate transgender athletes if they were not winning events,” he adds. “But that’s exactly what has happened.” Most famously, two trans females, Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, competed in the Connecticut women’s high school track championships in 2017, coming in first and second place, respectively, <a href="https://www.espn.com/espnw/story/_/id/29347507/the-battle-title-ix-gets-woman-sports-raging-national-debate">in the 100-meter dash</a>. </p>
<p>While such examples are rare – <a href="https://apnews.com/article/lawmakers-unable-to-cite-local-trans-girls-sports-914a982545e943ecc1e265e8c41042e7">as are trans athletes in general</a> – they pose a dilemma: how to balance the humanity of individuals who strive to compete alongside those who share their gender, and fairness in competition.</p>
<p>To Surprenant, there are no easy answers. He lists the problems with proposed solutions – from <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-race-to-replace-the-binary-of-mens-and-womens-sports-11583769636">testosterone-based handicapping</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-it-might-be-time-to-eradicate-sex-segregation-in-sports-89305">replacing gender divisions entirely with ability-level divisions</a> – before arriving at one that he thinks best serves all parties involved: eliminate “men’s” divisions and replace them with “open” divisions. </p>
<p>Any athlete could be allowed to compete in an open division. This better accommodates women – <a href="https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2021/02/18/kicking-down-barriers-sarah-fuller-makes-history-as-kicker-for-vanderbilt-football-team/">like Vanderbilt placekicker Sarah Fuller</a> – who are already competing alongside men, while giving coaches and organizers the opportunity to evaluate trans athletes on a case-by-case basis.</p>
<p>He continues:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“For trans women athletes, at issue is their athletic ability, not their womanhood. If a tournament organizer determines that a trans woman athlete is too good to compete against other women because of her biological advantage, requiring her to compete in an ‘open’ division does not undermine her humanity. Instead, this acknowledges – and takes seriously – that she identifies as a woman, but that respect for the principles of fair competition requires that she not be allowed to compete in the women’s division.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>3. Legislators pull from an old playbook</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, threading the needle and trying to remain sensitive to all sides doesn’t exactly jibe with the country’s charged, polarized politics.</p>
<p>Conservative legislators are pointing to the success of trans female athletes like Miller and Underwood to try to ban all trans athletes from competing in a division that doesn’t correspond with their birth sex.</p>
<p>It isn’t just youth sports being targeted. Bills restricting trans youth access to specialized health care, <a href="https://tucson.com/news/local/dueling-bills-would-allow-prevent-nonbinary-gender-ids-on-arizona-licenses/article_486d02f6-e4d5-54fe-befa-e68c6fb3ba22.html">limiting which gender can appear on state-issued IDs</a> and <a href="https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2021/02/16/parents-would-need-to-consent-to-gender-identity-curriculum-under-senate-bill/">mandating parental notification when teachers discuss LGBTQ issues</a> are all being debated. As of April 2021, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/15/politics/anti-transgender-legislation-2021/index.html">33 states had introduced more than 100 bills</a> seeking to curb the rights of transgender people.</p>
<p>University of Oregon political scientist Alison Gash sees conservatives pulling from an old playboook. For decades, she argues, they’ve passed anti-LGBTQ legislation or blocked anti-discrimination ordinances by appealing to the vulnerabilities of children. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/anti-transgender-bills-are-latest-version-of-conservatives-longtime-strategy-to-rally-their-base-158296">Gash explains how</a>, in the 1970s, singer and anti-gay rights activist <a href="https://www.wbur.org/npr/733537421/the-culture-wars-live-on-between-the-lgbtq-movement-and-the-religious-right">Anita Bryant</a> honed a template that would be mimicked, in various forms over the years, to oppose LGBTQ rights. </p>
<p>“Bryant’s ‘Save our Children’ campaign demonized gays and lesbians as ‘recruiting children’… and successfully encouraged voters to oppose legislative attempts to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination,” Gash writes. Bryant’s campaign also “prompted Florida legislators to bar same-sex couples from adopting children.”</p>
<p>Today, it’s more of the same.</p>
<p>During the bathroom bill debates, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0335-z">some politicians argued</a> that girls and women would become vulnerable to predatory men who dress up as women.</p>
<p>In the case of the most recent transgender legislation, the handful of trans kids who win events and the <a href="https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/949842">relatively small number of teenagers who regret their transition</a> are being held up as justification for sweeping legislation and large-scale bans, all under the guise of “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/05/10/anti-trans-legislation-has-never-been-about-protecting-children/">protecting children</a>.”</p>
<p>At the same time, discussing real or potential challenges that arise involving transgender youth – whether it’s a trans athlete who wins an event, pointing out that <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-transgender-health-care-issues-2021-05-23/">some young people may have been allowed to medically transition too soon</a> or questioning <a href="https://theconversation.com/doctors-treating-trans-youth-grapple-with-uncertainty-lack-of-training-159186">how much is really understood about the long-term effects of certain treatments</a> – can be seen as giving fodder to legislators who are looking to score political points. </p>
<p>As more and more transgender teens become visible, there are still complicated and unresolved societal issues, ones barely present a generation ago. And these conflicts and debates show little sign of abating anytime soon.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em>
</p><hr><p></p>
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<p><em><strong>Transgender youth.</strong> This article is part of <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/trans-youth-2021-102529">a series</a> exploring the social and medical issues of transgender children and their families. Sign up for a <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/transgender-youth-77/">four-email newsletter “course”</a> to learn about the latest research on trans youth.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158347/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Many aspects of American society, from language to sports to fashion, remain structured or separated by gender.Nick Lehr, Arts + Culture EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1513612020-12-22T13:35:07Z2020-12-22T13:35:07ZHow high school sports became the latest battleground over transgender rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375148/original/file-20201215-21-ylg7gh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C5734%2C3828&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">High school athletes, including Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, both transgender girls, compete in New Haven, Connecticut, in 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=Andraya%20yearwood&mediaType=photo&st=keyword">AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year, 20 states proposed to ban <a href="https://transequality.org/issues/resources/understanding-transgender-people-the-basics">transgender girls</a> – meaning those assigned male at birth but who live and identify as girls – from competing on girls interscholastic sports teams. </p>
<p>The only bill to pass was in Idaho. That law <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/sports/transgender-idaho-ban-sports.html?searchResultPosition=3">bars transgender athletes</a> from participating in high school and college sports. It also authorizes “sex testing” of athletes through genital exams and genetic and hormone testing. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://casetext.com/case/hecox-v-little">ACLU is challenging the law</a>, arguing that it violates civil rights, and a federal court has delayed its implementation. On Dec. 21, <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1398/ECF-Stamped-Hecox-Amicus-12.21.2020.pdf?1608588131">over 60 women’s and LGBTQ rights groups</a> and <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1399/athletes_in_womens_sports_amicus_brief_hecox_v._little.pdf?1608588187">nearly 200 women athletes</a>, including Billie Jean King, Megan Rapinoe and Candace Parker, filed legal briefs contesting the Idaho law and supporting the full inclusion of transgender athletes.</p>
<p>The right of girls and women to compete on sports teams has endured <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/tix_dis.html">50 years</a> of policy debate. With <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520275041/trans-kids">more young people</a> now identifying as transgender, whether transgender girls can compete on girls high school teams has risen to the forefront of these discussions. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21565503.2016.1268178">My research</a> helps explain why sports is a key venue for disputes over transgender equality today. The expansion of competitive sports for girls and women – both internationally and in the U.S. – has heightened scrutiny of who “belongs” on girls and women’s teams.</p>
<h2>A patchwork of rules</h2>
<p>Whether transgender youth can participate in athletics currently depends on <a href="https://www.transathlete.com/k-12">where they live</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://13248aea-16f8-fc0a-cf26-a9339dd2a3f0.filesusr.com/ugd/2bc3fc_447f7b8e8a44c835e855c51087a5a6d9.pdf">Some states</a>, like Minnesota and Massachusetts, allow transgender athletes to compete on the teams that comport with their identity, regardless of medical interventions. Others, like Illinois and Virginia, <a href="https://13248aea-16f8-fc0a-cf26-a9339dd2a3f0.filesusr.com/ugd/2bc3fc_1d32e085305d4e51aad243797a80ea43.pdf">require a documented medical transition</a>, including disclosure of hormone therapies. In states such as Georgia and New Mexico, athletic eligibility is <a href="https://13248aea-16f8-fc0a-cf26-a9339dd2a3f0.filesusr.com/ugd/2bc3fc_32e4906881914e43b3bf20479c6f77bc.pdf">determined only by the sex designated</a> on a student’s birth certificate. Still others, like Pennsylvania, let <a href="https://13248aea-16f8-fc0a-cf26-a9339dd2a3f0.filesusr.com/ugd/2bc3fc_f8142bb6209a401e90a6b6c469ba5f60.pdf">local schools decide</a>. <a href="https://www.transathlete.com/k-12">Ten states</a> offer no statewide guidance for incorporating transgender athletes. </p>
<p>These eligibility rules are typically determined by state athletic associations, not state legislatures. However the recent spate of legislation suggests this could change.</p>
<p><iframe id="ZJpb8" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ZJpb8/5/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Title IX and same-sex sports</h2>
<p><a href="https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=20+USC+1681%3A+Sex&f=treesort&fq=true&num=10&hl=true&edition=prelim&granuleId=USC-prelim-title20-section1681">Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972</a> is a federal law that bans sex discrimination at all levels of education. Every U.S. school must comply with the mandate. </p>
<p>Title IX has dramatically <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/citizens-by-degree-9780190650957?cc=us&lang=en&">increased women’s access</a> to college education, graduate schools and athletics. Today, <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1394/2018-19_participation_survey.pdf?1608515954">43% of high school athletes are girls</a>, as compared with 7% in 1971, the year before the bill became law.</p>
<p>After Title IX passed, policymakers had to decide how to increase women’s access to school-sponsored sports.</p>
<p>The National Organization for Women and other <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21565503.2016.1268178">pro-integration activists argued</a> that coed teams would ultimately help secure women’s equal status and visibility as athletes. At the same time, they worried immediate sex integration might disadvantage women, given the previous lack of training, coaching and athletic competition for girls and women. So, starting in 1979, policymakers <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/t9interp.html">required schools</a> to expand access by creating new teams specifically for women and girls. </p>
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<img alt="Uniformed football player kicks ball in the air" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375727/original/file-20201217-23-3dcwg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375727/original/file-20201217-23-3dcwg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375727/original/file-20201217-23-3dcwg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375727/original/file-20201217-23-3dcwg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375727/original/file-20201217-23-3dcwg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375727/original/file-20201217-23-3dcwg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375727/original/file-20201217-23-3dcwg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In 2020, Sarah Fuller of the Vanderbilt Commodores became the first woman to play in a Power Five college football game.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sarah-fuller-of-the-vanderbilt-commodores-warms-up-prior-to-news-photo/1229841716?adppopup=true">Missouri Athletics/Collegiate Images/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Since then, women have <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/11/28/939716026/sarah-fuller-makes-history-as-1st-woman-to-play-in-a-power-5-football-game">rarely competed</a> on men’s college or high school sports teams. Likewise, in 13 cases between 1971 and 2006, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243211398866">U.S. courts ruled</a> against <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-it-mean-to-be-cisgender-103159">cisgender boys and men</a> – those assigned male at birth and who live as boys and men – who wanted to play on teams for girls and women. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243211398866">Research shows</a> that the legal reasoning in these cases advances the dubious notion that girls are inherently inferior athletes.</p>
<p>Despite <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/playing-with-the-boys-9780195167566?cc=us&lang=en&">controversy around sex-segregated teams</a>, they remain the <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814799659/getting-in-the-game/">norm for athletic competition</a> in the U.S.</p>
<p>Currently, transgender athletes are underrepresented at the high school level. One <a href="https://assets2.hrc.org/files/assets/resources/PlayToWin-FINAL.pdf?_ga=2.28099006.300407420.1582836585-1986322191.1582510625">report from the Human Rights Campaign</a> found that only 12% of transgender girls participate in organized sports, compared with 68% of young people overall.</p>
<p>Among the reasons for this is the lack of clarity in equity policy. <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/26/court-yes-transgender-rights-gavin-grimm-bathroom-402532">Court cases establish</a> that public schools must affirm the gender of all students and protect them against exclusion under Title IX. However, the rights of transgender athletes to access high school sports teams are not specifically addressed in federal athletic policy guidelines. </p>
<h2>Transgender visibility and backlash</h2>
<p>Over the past three decades, the movement for transgender rights has made many <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/9448956/remarkable_rise_of_transgender_rights">legislative and social gains</a>. These include increased public recognition, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/us/gay-transgender-workers-supreme-court.html">legal victories</a> and some <a href="https://www.lgbtmap.org/mapping-trans-equality">state-level protections</a> against discrimination at school. </p>
<p>But increased visibility for transgender people has also produced legislative backlash on issues like <a href="https://contexts.org/articles/bathroom-battlegrounds-and-penis-panics/">access to public restrooms</a>.</p>
<p>These “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/us/north-carolina-transgender-bathrooms.html">bathroom bills</a>” – which included attempts to deny transgender students access to sex-segregated bathrooms at school – provided a blueprint for current legislative proposals barring transgender athletes. They were premised on the idea that transgender people should not have the right to use sex-segregated spaces, like public restrooms and <a href="https://theconversation.com/better-locker-rooms-its-not-just-a-transgender-thing-74023">locker rooms</a>, that align with their gender identity.</p>
<p>Recent legislative proposals suggest that such bans should also apply to high school sports competition.</p>
<h2>International sports and sex testing</h2>
<p>Ongoing disputes in the international sporting environment are also relevant to the broader debate about who “belongs” in women’s sports. </p>
<p>The case of South African Olympic track star Caster Semenya drew significant attention to this question. Semenya is a cisgender woman – meaning she was assigned female at birth and lives as a woman – and an Olympic gold medalist in the women’s 800-meter event. After her first international championship in 2009, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/sports/20runner.html">several competitors challenged</a> her victory. <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/11/30/eitheror">They suggested</a> that she was too fast, that her physical appearance was not sufficiently feminine, and that she was not “actually a woman.”</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/may/01/how-caster-semenya-controversy-unfolded-since-2009-timeline">decadelong dispute</a>, the international governing agency for track and field <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/magazine/the-humiliating-practice-of-sex-testing-female-athletes.html">fought to enact</a> a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/sports/olympics/intersex-athletes-human-rights.html">contested policy</a> that requires Semenya – and any other woman athlete whose gender is questioned – to submit to bodily and hormonal evaluations and possible medical treatments in order to remain eligible for particular running events. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/44/26">United Nations</a> and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/12/04/theyre-chasing-us-away-sport/human-rights-violations-sex-testing-elite-women">Human Rights Watch</a> argue the policy has lasting negative impacts on the targeted athletes. Semenya <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/sports/olympics/caster-semenya-court-ruling.html">refuses</a> to comply. </p>
<p>These <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/85fcr3nh9780252040221.html">sex testing</a> policies, also known as gender verification, have long policed the elite women’s category and particularly <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/702853/pdf">harm women of color</a>, who have been disproportionately scrutinized.</p>
<p>Idaho lawmakers envision enforcing their transgender ban on high school athletes in similarly invasive ways.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://issues.org/science-sport-sex/">scientists are divided</a> on whether <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674725324">monitoring testosterone</a> – as both <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/news/press-release/eligibility-regulations-for-female-classifica">international policy</a> and Idaho law now advocate – can identify any consistent athletic advantage. They <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674063518&content=reviews">continue to debate</a> <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/anne-fausto-sterling/sexing-the-body/9781541672895/">the meanings of gender</a> and the <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/Delusions-of-Gender">impacts of sex difference</a>.</p>
<p>Yet as the 2021 legislative season begins, <a href="https://legiscan.com/TN/bill/HB0003/2021">some states</a> have already proposed additional transgender athlete bans. U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Democrat of Hawaii, <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/8932/text">introduced a bill</a> in Congress that would limit Title IX’s athletic equity protections only to girls and women assigned female at birth. A court case involving transgender athletes’ rights in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/02/12/conn-high-school-girls-file-federal-suit-prevent-transgender-athletes-competing/">Connecticut</a> and the <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/idaho/iddce/1:2020cv00184/45676/63/">Idaho case</a> remain ongoing.</p>
<p>As policymakers and elected officials debate the future of sports for girls and women, the rights of transgender athletes hang in the balance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth A. Sharrow has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the American Association of University Women, the Gerald Ford Presidential Foundation, the Myra Sadker Foundation, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the American Political Science Association, and the Massachusetts Historical Society. </span></em></p>New legislative proposals want to allow ‘sex testing’ of girl athletes through genital exams and genetic and hormone testing.Elizabeth A. Sharrow, Associate Professor of Public Policy and History, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1266642019-11-14T13:00:20Z2019-11-14T13:00:20ZHow much credit should corporations get for the advancement of LGBTQ rights?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301368/original/file-20191112-178532-1ns9hub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Large corporations have both contributed to the expansion of LGBTQ equality and served as a bulwark against conservative backlash.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/33625151@N03/8150080687/sizes/h/in/photostream/">cobravictor/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Long targeted by LGBTQ activists for its opposition to gay marraige, the fast-food chain Chick-fil-A <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/18/business/chick-fil-a-donations-lgbtq.html">just announced</a> that it would no longer donate money to two groups, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Salvation Army, that have been criticized for LGBTQ discrimination.</em> </p>
<p><em>Was this an olive branch? Or simply a public relations decision to burnish a brand tarnished by years of protests?</em> </p>
<p><em>Whatever the reason, Chick-fil-A is late to the party.</em></p>
<p><em>Gay pride parades increasingly include <a href="https://www.bostonpride.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019_Parade_Detail_List_2019-06-02_Alpha_Order.pdf">marchers representing corporations</a>, from defense contractor <a href="https://billbrettboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Boston-Gay-Pride-117.jpg">Raytheon</a> to telecommunications conglomerate <a href="https://www.bostonpride.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019_Parade_Detail_List_2019-06-02_Alpha_Order.pdf">Comcast</a>. During the most recent Pride Month, Starbucks unveiled its “<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/love-meet-the-designer-of-the-starbucks-pride-cup-people-are-buzzing-about/">Pride Cup</a>,” while Target released a <a href="https://corporate.target.com/article/2019/06/pride">Pride line</a> of clothing and accessories.</em> </p>
<p><em>It’s easy to view these gestures through a lens of cynicism – that they’re a way for companies to generate positive media coverage while they continue to pay their workers the minimum wage or build drones. With <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/257705/support-gay-marriage-stable.aspx">63% of Americans</a> now supporting gay marriage, a company that celebrates LGBTQ pride is likely making a sound marketing decision that’s not particularly controversial.</em></p>
<p><em>But back in the 1980s and 1990s, when a much lower percentage of Americans were sympathetic to the cause, only a handful of companies stuck out their necks in support of LGBTQ rights. Which companies did so? And what spurred their support for LGBTQ equality? Those are questions law professor Carlos Ball explores in his new book, “<a href="http://www.beacon.org/The-Queering-of-Corporate-America-P1520.aspx">The Queering of Corporate America</a>,” in which he details how, over the course of 40 years, gay rights activists and corporations went from adversaries to partners.</em></p>
<p><em>In an interview, which has been edited for length and clarity, Ball explains why corporations were among the first targets of gay rights activists and why many of these same corporations eventually embraced their role as LGBTQ allies. But he also points to the limits of corporate advocacy.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>In the 1970s, what could happen to you if a company found out you were gay?</strong></p>
<p>You could very easily be fired on the spot. You could be demoted. You could be subject to harassment. </p>
<p>As part of its application process, Coors, for many years, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/14/obituaries/william-coors-dies-at-102.html">attached candidates to a lie detector test</a> and asked them a whole range of questions, including whether they had ever had a same-sex relationship. Pacific Bell, which back then was the largest private employer in California, <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/california/supreme-court/3d/24/458.html">claimed</a> that employing openly LGBTQ people would put its customers, employees and reputation at risk.</p>
<p>If you were fired for being gay, you would have had absolutely no legal remedies available to you, unless you lived in a handful of very liberal municipalities that had enacted anti-discrimination ordinances. </p>
<p>Even today, there are about <a href="https://www.freedomforallamericans.org/states/">30 states</a> in the U.S. that don’t explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. And the question of whether federal law – <a href="https://www.aauw.org/what-we-do/legal-resources/know-your-rights-at-work/title-vii/">Title VII</a> of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is actually <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/08/us/politics/supreme-court-gay-transgender.html">before the U.S. Supreme Court right now</a>.</p>
<p><strong>How did some of the earliest activists bring attention to the issue of LGBTQ rights in the workplace?</strong></p>
<p>They simply didn’t have the resources or people power to try to pressure large numbers of big companies, so they had to pick and choose which companies to target. Groups like the Gay and Lesbian Task Force, as it was then known, sent out a bunch of letters asking corporations about their treatment of sexual minorities. </p>
<p>The vast number of corporations refused to answer. But then you had some that replied by saying, in effect, “We do discriminate, and we don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. We don’t think our employees or our customers want to interact with openly gay people.” </p>
<p>Pacific Bell was one of the companies that wrote back saying, essentially, “We discriminate against gay people and we’re proud about that.” And so they became, not surprisingly, one of the first targets of LGBTQ activism aimed at large corporations. There were street demonstrations, meetings with San Francisco officials, letter-writing campaigns – all targeting Pacific Bell for its overt homophobia</p>
<p>The activism worked. By the mid-1980s, Pacific Bell was on its way to becoming a model corporate citizen on LGBTQ rights issues, <a href="https://hbr.org/1989/05/uncommon-decency-pacific-bell-responds-to-aids">in particular when it came to how it responded to the AIDS epidemic</a>.</p>
<p><strong>That’s a pattern you note with a few other companies – how activists targeted some of the most outwardly homophobic companies, and, within a few years, they became some of the most visible allies.</strong></p>
<p>Large companies spend millions of dollars marketing their brands. Anything that potentially tarnishes those brands, they pay attention to. </p>
<p>And activists made enough noise and got enough attention that executives made, in some ways, rational business decisions. They realized the negative publicity wasn’t good for their bottom line.</p>
<p>But I think, as the activism continued, executives were also persuaded that supporting LGBTQ equality was the right thing to do. They came to accept the basic argument that their LGBTQ employees were of equal merit and of equal worth as their heterosexual employees.</p>
<p>Now, this didn’t happen overnight. And it didn’t happen, by any means, at all companies. But it’s a trend that starts in the early 1970s and, as the activism grows, becomes more pronounced as the decades went on.</p>
<p><strong>Why did activists target corporations instead of politicians?</strong></p>
<p>Back in the 1970s and 1980s, it was extremely difficult to persuade a majority of legislators and voters to support LGBTQ civil rights laws. You simply don’t have to convince as many people when you are trying to persuade a company to adopt LGBTQ-friendly policies. All that it really takes is persuading a handful of top executives.</p>
<p>I think market forces also played an important role. First, by the time we get to the late 1980s and early 1990s, progressive consumers are starting to want to spend their dollars on goods and services provided by companies that reflect their values.</p>
<p>And second, I think having these policies in place allowed companies to attract and retain the most qualified employees. An LGBTQ job applicant who had the choice between two companies, one of which offered domestic partnership benefits and one that didn’t, was likely to go with the company that offered the benefits, because that was a signal that the company supported equal rights and treatment.</p>
<p><strong>At the same time, you point to this phenomenon of “corporate schizophrenia.”</strong></p>
<p>Right. Take Philip Morris. The company <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5068916/">donated large sums of money</a> to groups like the American Foundation for AIDS Research. But – and I guess this is where the schizophrenia comes in – <a href="https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/12/2/203">they were also financially supporting</a> hard-right, homophobic politicians like Senator Jesse Helms, who, at one point, <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-06-16-8702140384-story.html">actually called for the quarantining of people with AIDS</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301194/original/file-20191112-178520-1ptq41x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301194/original/file-20191112-178520-1ptq41x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301194/original/file-20191112-178520-1ptq41x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301194/original/file-20191112-178520-1ptq41x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301194/original/file-20191112-178520-1ptq41x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301194/original/file-20191112-178520-1ptq41x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301194/original/file-20191112-178520-1ptq41x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms whispers into the ear of President Ronald Reagan during a campaign event in 1984.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-NC-USA-APHS391541-President-Ronald-/212e5941521c490c923cc2008ae51b1c/22/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And while corporations deserve a lot of credit for being <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/the-backlash-to-north-carolinas-lgbt-non-discrimination-ban/475500/">an important part of the coalition</a> that resisted the transgender bathroom bill <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/north-carolina-gender-bathrooms-bill/index.html">enacted by the North Carolina legislature in 2016</a>, many of these same corporations were funding the Republican elected officials who wrote and supported that law.</p>
<p><strong>How did corporations respond to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s?</strong></p>
<p>I would say that the overall track record of corporate America during the early years of the AIDS epidemic was terrible. Like most important and influential institutions in the U.S., large companies responded to AIDS with a toxic combination of prejudice and neglect.</p>
<p>The vast majority of corporations either implemented actual discriminatory policies – like placing health insurance reimbursement caps of US$5,000 for AIDS-related conditions – or allowed discrimination to take place by looking the other way.</p>
<p>However, there was a handful of corporations – for example, Pacific Bell, Bank of America and Westinghouse – that decided they couldn’t ignore the issue any longer. Like many large companies, they had employees who were so paranoid or homophobic that they refused to work alongside anybody who was gay, because the assumption was that if you were a gay man, you were HIV-positive. Large companies were getting many requests for transfers. They were also witnessing employees walking out of workplaces, en masse, when an HIV-positive employee was allowed to return to work after receiving medical treatment.</p>
<p>But rather than dealing with these problems on an ad-hoc basis, or by siding with their homophobic employees, executives at some corporations looked into the issue, consulted with public health experts and basically decided that it didn’t make sense to treat HIV-positive employees any differently from how they treated employees who had cancer or heart conditions. </p>
<p>It seems so obvious today, but one executive for Pacific Bell said, “Our employees with AIDS are sick, and we don’t fire our sick employees.” In 1985, that mattered. It was a simple statement of humanity, and it made a big difference.</p>
<p>In doing my research for the book, I was surprised to learn that a handful of large businesses were the earliest powerful institutions in the U.S. to respond to AIDS in sensible and humane ways. Before government, before unions, before universities, before many religious organizations, these companies took the lead on AIDS issues.</p>
<p><strong>Companies are usually loath to publicly wade into polarizing political issues. Why, by the 21st century, did so many publicly take a stand in favor of marriage equality?</strong></p>
<p>I think the 30 years of activism aimed at corporations that preceded that public stand made a huge difference. By the 21st century, LGBTQ rights issues were no longer new issues for corporations. </p>
<p>There were about eight Fortune 500 companies that provided domestic partner benefits in 1993. By 2001, <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/changing-corporate-america-from-inside-out">the number was over 100</a>. So this revolution was already taking place inside corporate America. Executives and corporate board members were learning that LGBTQ equality measures were good for their companies. But they were also learning that true equality was not possible unless the government itself stopped discriminating. </p>
<p>Large companies had adopted domestic partner benefits, they had adopted these non-discrimination policies, and there had really been no downside for them. Sure, some socially conservative groups were upset and there were a couple of boycotts called by right-wing organizations. But those really went nowhere.</p>
<p>By the time the same-sex marriage issue reached the Supreme Court, <a href="https://qz.com/359424/every-us-company-arguing-for-the-supreme-court-to-legalize-same-sex-marriage/">hundreds of corporations</a> joined activists to ask the justices to recognize a constitutional right to marriage equality. And this had a tremendous political and legal impact. After all, these were not radical left-wing organizations that were making this demand. What can be more mainstream than Procter & Gamble and General Electric?</p>
<p><strong>What are some of the limits of this public-facing, corporate activism?</strong></p>
<p>That’s a very important question. Large corporations have certainly contributed to the expansion of LGBTQ equality in the United States and have, in the last few years, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2017/07/business-against-texas-bathroom-bill/533928/">served as an important bulwark</a> to protect those gains from conservative backlash.</p>
<p>That being said, nothing in the book is intended to suggest that corporations are always on the right side of disputed policy issues. There’s a whole plethora of positions that some large corporations take that are problematic from a progressive perspective, whether we’re talking about labor or environmental or taxation issues. </p>
<p>You’ll also see corporations be supportive of gay rights in the U.S. but then refuse to criticize foreign governments in other countries where they do business for their anti-LGBT laws and policies. </p>
<p>There will be times when the interests of corporations will align with the interests of activists, but you have to keep in mind that corporations, at the end of the day, are going to do what they believe is in their economic interest. </p>
<p><strong>It seems like the gay rights issue is a lot easier for companies to publicly support, compared with other issues, like economic inequality.</strong></p>
<p>Sure, in some ways, LGBTQ rights is an easier issue. But it wasn’t always easy, right? It became easy as a result of 40 years of activism.</p>
<p>You know, this book is being published at an interesting time. The country and corporate leaders have been having this broader conversation about the role of large corporations in American society.</p>
<p>We have the statement by the Business Roundtable <a href="https://theconversation.com/companies-dont-need-permission-from-the-business-roundtable-to-be-better-corporate-citizens-122245">over the summer</a> about how corporations need to not just look out for the interests of their shareholders but also their employees, customers and the communities where they’re located. And so we’re starting to see – on issues like gun control, on immigration reform – corporations take more public stances, sometimes supporting progressive policy positions.</p>
<p>I find it kind of promising that there’s this bigger conversation that we seem to be having about the role and responsibilities of companies and large corporations in our democracy. And I’m hoping that this book can be a part of that conversation.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on Nov. 14.</em></p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126664/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
In an interview, law professor Carlos Ball explains how gay rights activists and corporations went from adversaries to partners. But would the alliance have happened if it had hurt companies’ bottom lines?Nick Lehr, Arts + Culture EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1252862019-10-15T11:16:06Z2019-10-15T11:16:06ZWhy ‘woke’ NBA is struggling to balance its values with Chinese expansion<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296975/original/file-20191014-135517-1kqn5l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">China is the NBA's second-biggest market.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/China-Nationalism-Beats-NBA-Basketball/3a2e3a1ca2fe4024829b0e614fe76295/3/0">AP Photo/Ng Han Guan</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s not easy being a for-profit organization these days. </p>
<p>Take the National Basketball Association. It found itself in a tricky situation in its <a href="https://time.com/5695823/china-nba-houston-rockets-basketball/">second-largest market</a> after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey on Oct. 4 tweeted his solidarity with pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. This <a href="http://houston.china-consulate.org/eng/sgxw/t1705494.htm">naturally angered</a> China, which led the NBA to label his comment “inappropriate” in the <a href="https://twitter.com/yiqinfu/status/1181024883272114180">Chinese version</a> of its statement. The Rockets’ owner then made clear that the team is “<a href="https://twitter.com/TilmanJFertitta/status/1180330287957495809">not a political organization</a>.”</p>
<p>That was followed by <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-china-issue-latest-news-resulting-from-daryl-moreys-hong-kong-tweet-what-it-means-for-the-league/">another backlash</a>, this time from fans, celebrities and media in the U.S. In fact, it produced a rare moment of political consensus, as both Republican and Democratic leaders <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-nbas-feud-with-china-has-republican-and-democratic-senators-saying-the-same-thing-dont-apologize-to-china-2019-10-07">piled on to shame the NBA</a> for its kowtowing. As a result, the NBA commissioner on Oct. 8 <a href="https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1181497808563658752">issued a statement</a> reasserting the organization’s intent to stand by its values of diversity and support for free speech. </p>
<p>Both <a href="https://fortune.com/2019/10/12/apples-response-to-hong-kong-protests-and-beijings-complaints-overshadows-macos-catalina-release/">Apple</a> and <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/11/20910692/blizzard-hearthstone-ban-reduce-hong-kong-protests-blitzchung-prize-money">Blizzard Entertainment</a> also found themselves in similar quandaries with China over the Hong Kong protests in recent days. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_wbcFHEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholar of corporate strategy and social positioning</a>, I believe that the NBA’s bind illustrates the important tension modern companies face between geographic expansion and political advocacy. </p>
<h2>The ‘world’s wokest league’</h2>
<p>The NBA, called the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/opinion/nba-china-hong-kong.html">“world’s wokest professional sports league,”</a> has been applauded as a <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2018/02/16/news/companies/nba-adam-silver-player-activism/index.html">champion for social justice</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/10/sports/basketball/i-cant-breathe-tshirts-in-the-nba-how-jayz-lebron-james-and-others-made-them-happen.html?module=inline">It notably backed its stars</a> who expressed support for Black Lives Matter, in contrast to the harsh reprisals that met NFL players who stood with the movement by kneeling last season. </p>
<p>In the past, the organization has also pushed back against markets that threatened its values. In 2016, for example, the league responded to North Carolina’s passage of a law that would restrict transgender individuals’ access to identity-conforming bathrooms <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/nba-pulls-all-star-game-out-charlotte-over-hb2-n614466">by pulling its All-Star game</a> from the city of Charlotte. In doing this, it stated that its “activities [are] intended to be a global celebration of basketball, our league, and the values for which we stand.”</p>
<p>The league’s action sent a powerful message: As an organization whose activities are an authentic manifestation of core values, it couldn’t in good conscious host its event in a political climate that was so overtly opposed to those values.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297140/original/file-20191015-98678-1tlwdkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297140/original/file-20191015-98678-1tlwdkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297140/original/file-20191015-98678-1tlwdkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297140/original/file-20191015-98678-1tlwdkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297140/original/file-20191015-98678-1tlwdkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297140/original/file-20191015-98678-1tlwdkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297140/original/file-20191015-98678-1tlwdkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The NBA earned its ‘woke’ credentials in part by backing players who supported Black Lives Matter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Competing tensions</h2>
<p>The NBA’s recent run-in with China, however, shows there may be limits to how far it will go to stand up for these values. </p>
<p>That’s because the Chinese market represents an incredible opportunity for NBA to grow its consumer base abroad. Its Chinese operations are presently <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2018/02/26/mark-tatum-talks-about-the-nbas-enormous-success-in-china/#40dcc147518b">worth more than US$4 billion</a>. </p>
<p>The episode illustrates the difficulty of expanding abroad while adhering to social and political values. Both offer potential profits and pitfalls.</p>
<p>Geographic expansion is one of the <a href="https://www.axial.net/forum/growing-into-new-geographical-markets/">most favored strategies for a business to grow</a>. It allows a business to continue to squeeze additional value out of its proven products by simply tapping into new pools of consumers. </p>
<p>Companies are also feeling the <a href="https://hbr.org/2018/01/the-new-ceo-activists">pressure to stake a position</a> on political and other issues in an increasingly polarized environment. The <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/10/7/20894134/consumer-activism-conscious-consumerism-explained">rise of consumer consciousness</a> means that modern consumers tend to search for – and pay a premium for – products peddled by companies that share their values. </p>
<p>This means that another easy tool for growing profits is to define and declare a set of social values: to be a brand that stands for something. More and more companies are doing just that. For example, in 2015, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/marriage-equality-amicus_n_6808260">hundreds of companies urged</a> the Supreme Court to recognize gay marriage as a constitutional right. Just this year, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abortion-laws-are-bad-for-business-180-ceos-say-in-open-letter-like-georgia-abortion-law/">hundreds more signed an open letter</a> opposing a wave of legislation aiming to restrict women’s reproductive rights. </p>
<p>Research shows that when people believe that a company shares their values, they reward it generously. Consumers are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026619848144?journalCode=oaec">more excited to buy</a> its products. Employees will <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2492">be more engaged</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2016.1066">demand less compensation</a>. </p>
<p>But once people begin to think that a company’s social engagement is driven by profit-seeking rather than moral motives, all of the benefits of social engagement go away. My own research demonstrates that people are especially averse to hypocrisy, which can lead to <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2017.0890">increased turnover</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122417747289">punitive reactions</a> and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2079227">attacks from activists</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297143/original/file-20191015-98670-1u5q3av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297143/original/file-20191015-98670-1u5q3av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297143/original/file-20191015-98670-1u5q3av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297143/original/file-20191015-98670-1u5q3av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297143/original/file-20191015-98670-1u5q3av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297143/original/file-20191015-98670-1u5q3av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297143/original/file-20191015-98670-1u5q3av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Brooklyn Nets play against the Los Angeles Lakers during a preseason NBA game in Shanghai, China.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lessons from the NBA</h2>
<p>It is easy for companies to stay true to their values in their home communities, where people <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2007.25275683">tend to be like-minded</a>. </p>
<p>As they expand geographically, however, they will eventually be enticed to explore markets where their values are less well aligned. In the extreme case, the price of entry to an attractive market that does not share a company’s values is compromising those very values. </p>
<p>What leaders must recognize is that decisions that pit a potential opportunity to profit against an opportunity to stay true to their core values are the ones that define or defile their authenticity. Any gains to be won from bending to gatekeepers in a misaligned market must be balanced with the reputational losses that will be suffered at home among longstanding stakeholders. </p>
<p>In my view, the NBA’s reputation as a “woke” enterprise is in tatters. Let this be a lesson to other companies that are struggling to stake political positions while expanding geographically. Companies should be wary of taking a position that they are not prepared to stand up for when it costs them – and ought to think twice about entering markets where their values don’t resonate.</p>
<p>[ <em>You respect facts and expertise. So do The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=yourespect">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125286/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary-Hunter McDonnell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The National Basketball Association’s difficulty dealing with a tweet in support of Hong Kong protesters shows the challenges of having values and expanding into new markets.Mary-Hunter McDonnell, Clarence Nickman Assistant Professor of Management, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1061402018-11-16T11:44:23Z2018-11-16T11:44:23ZTransgender Americans still face workplace discrimination despite some progress and support of companies like Apple<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245618/original/file-20181114-194494-rdq2wa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Transgender employees still struggle in the workplace.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/virginiamurray/43407956064/in/photolist-298P82A-j6uFp7-oxe2Vo-oPFDod-26pCrq9-pZZCpt-dpJHCt-QAgp4A-fy8nn7-mxJbt9-dpL814-aziFFA-azg3Wt-dpL6RE-drLr7F-dpKXqz-az2tZn-bG3MfX-azKfQZ-dpJYgU-82P5WN-dpLaJS-dpLaXm-bEcio2-dpsAmn-7C8cY4-drK1HL-dpL7qt-drJq6i-drLugB-dpsNja-dpKZxi-bEcfHe-brhnLj-azvEhf-dpJWv9-az58CU-bEcckk-drJq36-dpL9WS-azdgBi-drLCpY-dpJTUY-o8enRh-7Cc2Sj-dpsKx9-dpJPmc-oc3PSk-azdgQV-bEcdn6">Virginia Murray/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith founded <a href="https://www.glaad.org/tdor">Transgender Day of Remembrance</a> on Nov. 20 to honor the memory of those whose lives were lost due to trans prejudice and hatred. </p>
<p>In that spirit of reflection, the day serves as an opportune time to examine how the opportunities and experiences of transgender individuals in the workplace have changed – particularly at a time when some government officials are <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/22/18007978/trump-administration-lgbtq-transgender-discrimination-civil-rights">openly advocating policies</a> that discriminate against them.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xU8P9K4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I’ve been researching</a> diversity and inclusion in a variety of settings including <a href="http://diversityinsport.squarespace.com">sports</a> and work for nearly two decades. The good news is that my work and that of my peers shows transgender individuals have made significant strides in the workplace. The bad news is that many hurdles remain to equal opportunity and an end to discrimination. </p>
<h2>Signs of progress</h2>
<p>Various indicators and signs point to meaningful improvements in the access, treatment and opportunities for transgender employees. </p>
<p>One such indicator is the Human Rights Campaign’s <a href="https://assets2.hrc.org/files/assets/resources/CEI-2018-FullReport.pdf">Corporate Equality Index</a>, an annual assessment of policies and benefits for LGBT individuals in Fortune 500 companies. In 2002, only 3 percent of Fortune 500 companies had nondiscrimination polices based on gender identity. That figure was 83 percent in the most recent report, which came out in 2018. </p>
<p>The report also shows that most Fortune 500 companies now include transgender-inclusive medical benefits. In 2002, no companies offered such provisions.</p>
<p>Another measure of how much things have changed is in the willingness of corporate giants and their CEOs to oppose policies that discriminate against trandsgender individuals. </p>
<p>A recent example is when President Donald Trump said he would seek to legally <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-trump-administrations-plan-to-redefine-gender-recalls-an-earlier-rejection-of-science">define gender</a> as immutably male or female. Coca-Cola, Apple, JP Morgan Chase and dozens of other major U.S. companies swiftly <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/business-trump-transgender-policies_us_5bdbbe6ce4b04367a87b15fe">signaled</a> their opposition.</p>
<p>Another is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-anti-lgbt-laws-foster-a-culture-of-exclusion-that-harms-states-economic-prosperity-71123">backlash</a> that has followed legislative efforts to limit the rights of transgender individuals to use pubic restrooms. North Carolina, for example, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/27/bathroom-bill-to-cost-north-carolina-376-billion.html">was estimated to lose</a> US$3.76 billion over a dozen years after companies nixed plans to build facilities in the state or canceled concerts because of the “bathroom bill” lawmakers passed. They later repealed it. </p>
<p>My own <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/George_Cunningham3/publication/278035381_Signals_and_cues_LGBT_inclusive_advertising_and_consumer_attraction/links/557af47608aee5c46044946c/Signals-and-cues-LGBT-inclusive-advertising-and-consumer-attraction.pdf">research</a> with a colleague shows why corporate America is taking a stand: Most consumers value inclusiveness. Participants in a study we conducted in 2014 interpreted LGBT-inclusive statements by organizations as a signal that the company valued all forms of diversity. As a result, the consumers’ attraction to the organization increased. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245619/original/file-20181114-194516-1q79muh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245619/original/file-20181114-194516-1q79muh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245619/original/file-20181114-194516-1q79muh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245619/original/file-20181114-194516-1q79muh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245619/original/file-20181114-194516-1q79muh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245619/original/file-20181114-194516-1q79muh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245619/original/file-20181114-194516-1q79muh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Human Rights Campaign maintains the LGBT Corporate Equality Index.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/HRC-Releases-Results-of-Annual-LGBT-Corporate-E-/aeed0195def0445da05d0efc75979c42/13/0">AP Photo/John Amis</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hurdles remain</h2>
<p>Despite the progress, hurdles still exist, impeding full trans inclusion in the workplace.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-017-0791-6">study</a> I conducted with another colleague in 2017, for example, showed that, although attitudes toward transgender individuals have improved over time, they still lag behind perceptions toward lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals. </p>
<p>Legal scholars from UCLA’s Williams Institute <a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Pizer-Mallory-Sears-Hunter-ENDA-LLR-2012.pdf">have shown</a> that transgender people earn less and are more likely to be unemployed than their cisgender peers – whose gender corresponds to their birth sex. In fact, in 2011, one in seven transgender individuals earned $10,000 or less a year, while the unemployment rate for trans people of color was nearly four times the national rate. </p>
<p>For those who are employed, they routinely face discrimination. In another <a href="http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Texas-Impact-of-Stigma-and-Discrimination-Report-April-2017.pdf">study</a> out of the Williams Institute, state law and policy director Christy Mallory and colleagues found that more than one in four reported being fired, passed over for promotion or not being hired in the past year because of their gender identity and expression.</p>
<p>Others are aware of the mistreatment. In a <a href="http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Texas-Impact-of-Stigma-and-Discrimination-Report-April-2017.pdf">survey</a> of Texans – a state where employment discrimination against transgender individuals is legal – 79 percent of the respondents agreed that LGBT individuals face workplace discrimination. </p>
<p>Texans are not alone. According to the <a href="http://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps/non_discrimination_laws">Movement Advancement Project</a>, an organization whose mission is to promote equality for all, 48 percent of LGBT individuals live in states lacking employment protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245626/original/file-20181114-194506-2dor7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245626/original/file-20181114-194506-2dor7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245626/original/file-20181114-194506-2dor7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245626/original/file-20181114-194506-2dor7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245626/original/file-20181114-194506-2dor7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245626/original/file-20181114-194506-2dor7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245626/original/file-20181114-194506-2dor7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Apple has been one of the most outspoken companies about LGBT rights.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Gay-Pride-San-Francisco/f2b0b91cc09641f6a6e4bbb972432bda/4/0">AP Photo/Eric Risberg</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More inclusive workplaces</h2>
<p>The evidence suggests transgender individuals have made progress in the workplace, but they still face considerable barriers. What, then, can employers do to create more inclusive environments?</p>
<p>Legal protections are key. Organizational psychologists Laura Barron and Michelle Hebl <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-13791-001">have shown</a> that the presence of anti-discrimination ordinances and laws decrease bias in employment decision making. Absent federal protections, states and cities can ensure all people have employment protections, irrespective of their gender identity and expression.</p>
<p>Organizational leaders also make a difference. My <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2014-0135">research</a> shows that leader advocacy and role modeling are critical when creating and sustaining an inclusion culture. Apple CEO Tim Cook, for example, has a history of <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/04/17/apple-ceo-tim-cook-lgbt-free-speech/">strongly advocating</a> for LGBT rights. It is little wonder, then, that Apple is routinely listed among the most <a href="https://www.thehrdigest.com/american-express-and-apple-among-worlds-lgbt-friendly-companies/">LGBT-friendly</a> companies.</p>
<p>Finally, co-workers play an important role, especially when they serve as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1376221">allies</a>. These are persons who advocate for transgender equality in the workplace and try to create welcoming, inclusive spaces. Allies seek to <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-59374-026">create social change</a>, leading the charge at times and supporting their transgender colleagues in other instances.</p>
<p>Transgender inclusion helps all involved. Employee engagement and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2014-0135">performance improves</a>, as does their <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2015-39781-007">psychological and physical health</a>. Diverse and inclusive organizations <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2624">outperform</a> their peers on objective measures of success, such as stock market performance. </p>
<p>Thus, the path forward – one that clears the hurdles in place and creates an inclusive environment – is one that can benefit everyone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106140/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George B. Cunningham does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While US companies have made significant strides in creating workplaces that are more inclusive of transexual individuals, discrimination and employment penalties remain.George B. Cunningham, Professor of Sport Management and Sr. Assistant Provost for Graduate and Professional Studies, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/711232017-01-30T03:52:30Z2017-01-30T03:52:30ZHow anti-LGBT laws foster a culture of exclusion that harms states’ economic prosperity<p>When it comes to “bathroom bills” and other legislation that curtails the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals, North Carolina was a first actor. But, if some lawmakers have their way, many states, and even the federal government, will quickly follow suit. </p>
<p>So far this year, 11 states have proposed <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/-bathroom-bill-legislative-tracking635951130.aspx">legislation</a> requiring people to use bathrooms in government buildings, public schools and public universities consistent with the sex assigned on their birth certificate. The issue is hardly new, and lawmakers in these and other states have proposed similar bills in the past. Only one, North Carolina, however, <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/-bathroom-bill-legislative-tracking635951130.aspx">has managed to pass such a law</a>, having done so in 2016. </p>
<p>Other states, like <a href="https://www.aclu-wy.org/en/news/legislature-introduces-wyoming-government-discrimination-act">Wyoming</a>, have proposed legislation that allows discrimination against the LGBT community on religious grounds. This bill also forbids government agencies from passing nondiscrimination bills or ordinances. </p>
<p>At the federal level, Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-first-amendment-defense-act-trump-20170106-story.html">recently announced</a> that he would reintroduce the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2802">First Amendment Defense Act</a>. This bill would prohibit the government from punishing business owners who discriminate against LGBT individuals based on their religious beliefs or moral convictions. </p>
<p>Despite the fervor surrounding these bills, there are a host of problems associated with them. To borrow from Chuck Smith, executive director of <a href="https://www.equalitytexas.org/">Equality Texas</a>, <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2017/01/05/texas-lt-gov-dan-patrick-unveils-so-called-bathroo/">discriminatory laws</a> like these are “morally bankrupt and wrong.” </p>
<p>Beyond such moral objections, these bills also carry a host of economic, health and other consequences, as North Carolina has learned. Research in the area of regional economic development, and my own work with sport organizations, shows how laws such as these send a message of exclusion, drive away creative people and, ultimately, hurt workplace creativity and performance. As a result, long-term economic prosperity suffers. </p>
<h2>Protection of people</h2>
<p>Proponents of so-called bathroom bills tend to argue that they’re trying to stop sexual predators and would-be child molesters from abusing local laws that allow trans people to use the restroom of the gender with which they identify. However, there is a <a href="http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_molestation.html">no scientific evidence</a> linking members of the LGBT community with child molestation. </p>
<p><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/sexual-assault-domestic-violence-organizations-debunk-bathroom-predator/story?id=38604019">Others</a> suggest that men would pretend to be trans so they might be able to assault women and children in women’s restrooms. These fears are not supported by statistics, however, as communities that have inclusive bathroom policies have not witnessed a rise in assault cases. </p>
<p>Thus, the underlying premise – protection of people – is based on outdated stereotypes, faulty science and zero evidence. Rather, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/hb2-is-a-constitutional-monstrosity/482106/">discriminatory laws</a> tend to cause harm, in terms of health and well-being. </p>
<p>Researchers have shown that trans individuals who face discrimination are more likely than their peers to <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00918369.2016.1157998">attempt suicide</a>. Further, when trans individuals cannot use the restroom that matches their gender identity and expression, they are likely to be <a href="http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Herman-Gendered-Restrooms-and-Minority-Stress-June-2013.pdf">harassed and abused</a>.</p>
<h2>Economic costs</h2>
<p>But beyond these moral and health-related consequences, there are real economic damages associated with “bathroom bills” and other forms of “legal” discrimination.</p>
<p>North Carolina experienced as much when it passed its legislation in 2016. <a href="http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a43931/north-carolina-anti-lgbt-law-boycott/">Scores</a> of businesses and entertainers either canceled upcoming events or opted to forgo moving their business operations to the state in the future. According to Forbes, the end result was a <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/corinnejurney/2016/11/03/north-carolinas-bathroom-bill-flushes-away-nearly-1-billion-in-business-and-governor-mccrorys-re-election-hopes/#536cc046eb5c">US$600 million economic loss</a>, including tax revenue, directly attributable to law. These effects are consistent with <a href="http://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/42dc59a0-6071-46d0-8ff2-9bd7a6b0077f/enda---final-11.5.13.pdf">research</a> showing that discriminatory laws undermine economic growth. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, a number of economists have forecast similar economic peril for states considering discriminatory laws. In Texas, for example, an <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/01/10/texas-transgender-bathroom-bill-unnecessary-disaster">economic impact study</a> conducted by the Texas Association of Businesses estimated an $8.5 billion loss in GDP. </p>
<p>The loss of major events represents a possibility. For example, San Antonio is slated to host the National Collegiate Athletic Association Men’s Final Four basketball championships in 2018, with an expected economic impact of almost $240 million. <a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/14/sports/ncaabasketball/texas-transgender-bill-final-four-san-antonio.html?smid=tw-nytsports&smtyp=cur&_r=0&referer=">That could be in jeopardy</a> if the bill is passed. The NCAA moved championship events out of North Carolina after its bathroom bill became law.</p>
<h2>How exclusion impairs prosperity</h2>
<p>These discussions of the adverse economic impact of discriminatory laws still miss a crucial point: Governments that signal a lack of inclusiveness pass on indirect costs to affected states, cities and businesses. </p>
<p>That’s because businesses, entertainers and major events tend to want to <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-did-che-guevara-become-ceo-the-roots-of-the-new-corporate-activism-64203">reward and associate with inclusive entities</a> and avoid those that exclude. While this might not have been the case even 20 years ago, <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/packages/lgbt-in-changing-times/">shifting societal attitudes</a> toward LGBT inclusion necessitate a strategic shift. </p>
<p>This pattern is seen in several ways. </p>
<p>First, organizations recognized for inclusion of LGBT individuals outperform their less inclusive peers in terms of <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hrm.20341/full">stock price returns</a>. This suggests that investors acknowledge the value of having policies and practices that are inclusive. </p>
<p>Noted University of Toronto professor and urban studies theorist Richard Florida developed a framework, <a href="http://creativeclass.com/rfcgdb/articles/4%20Cities%20and%20the%20Creative%20Class.pdf">creative capital theory</a>, that sheds further light on the topic. This perspective suggests that attracting creative people is key to generating regional economic development. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=_f0WBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=richard+florida&ots=I5f4TuURX3&sig=aef_OSb9JwS5CsCyKDAQmKUbvA4#v=onepage&q=richard%20florida&f=false">Creative people</a> are most likely to move to a region when that space is marked by an influx of technology, talented individuals and an inclusive culture.</p>
<p>As trans and other individuals regularly face prejudice and discrimination, regions that are inclusive of LGBT individuals are likely to be inclusive of all kinds of differences – something that is appealing to creative individuals. And, as it is creative individuals who drive the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=_f0WBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=richard+florida&ots=I5f4TuURX3&sig=aef_OSb9JwS5CsCyKDAQmKUbvA4#v=onepage&q=richard%20florida&f=false">regional economic engine</a>, it is no wonder that places that have seen tremendous economic growth are also the ones most likely to be marked by LGBT inclusiveness. </p>
<p>Third, my colleagues and I have applied Florida’s ideas to the organizational level of analysis, with a particular focus on the sport and physical activity setting. Consistent with patterns seen at the regional level, we have observed that LGBT-inclusive organizations have <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00918369.2011.598413">creative workplace cultures</a> and, subsequently, outshine their peers on objective measures of success, such as the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/George_Cunningham3/publication/251677210_The_LGBT_advantage_Examining_the_relationship_among_sexual_orientation_diversity_diversity_strategy_and_performance/links/557a079208ae75363756fcd3.pdf">performance of their teams</a>. Our <a href="http://search.proquest.com/docview/1514693594?pq-origsite=gscholar">experimental work</a> shows that people are likely to patronize organizations that signal LGBT inclusiveness. This is largely due to the consumers’ belief that such organizations embrace diversity in other areas, such as race and gender. </p>
<p>Finally, the reaction to North Carolina’s law shows that companies want to be associated with inclusive policies. As the old adage goes, “you are known by the company you keep.”</p>
<p>People frequently make <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1362/026725704323080498?needAccess=true">cognitive linkages</a> between companies and the entities with which they are associated. This is why, for example, many companies will seek celebrity endorsers, as they anticipate that the positive feelings fans assign to the celebrities are transferred to the organization itself. </p>
<p>These same dynamics occur when companies or events are linked with negative associations. But in this case, those associations hurt the companies and events involved. </p>
<p>Thus, when groups have events in states that are discriminatory toward LGBT individuals, there’s a natural concern that they’ll get tarred with the same brush. And that’s why sport organizations like the NCAA or the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/sports/basketball/nba-all-star-game-moves-charlotte-transgender-bathroom-law.html?_r=0">National Basketball Association </a>, entertainers such as <a href="http://brucespringsteen.net/news/2016/a-statement-from-bruce-springsteen-on-north-carolina">Bruce Springsteen</a> and businesses like <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/the-backlash-to-north-carolinas-lgbt-non-discrimination-ban/475500/">Dow Chemical</a> all sought to distance themselves from North Carolina and would likely do so in Texas if legislators turn Patrick’s bill into law.</p>
<p>Conservative lawmakers may continue to ignore this evidence and try to pass laws that legalize discrimination, but they do so at great risk to their economies – not to mention the health and well-being of many of their citizens. </p>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71123/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George B. Cunningham does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Conservative lawmakers are proposing ‘bathroom bills’ and other measures that discriminate against LGBT individuals. Beyond the moral concerns, there are large economic costs as well.George B. Cunningham, Professor and Associate Dean, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/595092016-05-21T15:15:11Z2016-05-21T15:15:11ZWhy trans rights nationwide are only a matter of time<p><em>Editor’s note: This article is part of our collaboration with <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/point-taken/">Point Taken</a>, a new program from WGBH that next airs on Tuesday, May 24 on PBS and online at pbs.org. The show features fact-based debate on major issues of the day, without the shouting.</em></p>
<p>There is a long way to go before transgender people throughout the United States are treated with respect and dignity, as shown by the opposition in some places to trans people using restrooms that match their gender identity. A number of states and school districts have taken a <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/obama-transgender-bathroom-students-title-ix-223170">stand against</a> the Obama administration’s reading of <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/wysk/enforcement_protections_lgbt_workers.cfm">Title VII</a> and <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-departments-justice-and-education-release-joint-guidance-help-schools-ensure-civil-rights">Title IX</a> – amendments that prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation – as applying to transgender people too.</p>
<p>But as a scholar on the experiences of young trans people, I believe my research suggests that it is only a matter of time before trans people achieve equal rights and wider social acceptance. While gender is different from sexuality, the history of the struggle for same-sex marriage in this country shows why this will be the case.</p>
<h2>From social outlaws to family in-laws</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123420/original/image-20160520-4466-13xdyqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123420/original/image-20160520-4466-13xdyqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123420/original/image-20160520-4466-13xdyqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123420/original/image-20160520-4466-13xdyqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123420/original/image-20160520-4466-13xdyqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123420/original/image-20160520-4466-13xdyqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123420/original/image-20160520-4466-13xdyqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">On Tuesday, May 24, at 11 p.m. on PBS, Point Taken asks: ‘Is the US moving too quickly or too slowly on gender rights?’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/point-taken/#intro">WGBH</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Prior to the year 2000, no state recognized same-sex marriages or even civil unions. At the time, the federal government also defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman. Public opinion polls <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2016/05/12/changing-attitudes-on-gay-marriage">indicated</a> that a clear majority of heterosexual people in the U.S. opposed the recognition of same-sex relationships.</p>
<p>By 2011, six states had legalized same-sex marriages, and national opinion polls <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2016/05/12/changing-attitudes-on-gay-marriage">showed</a> an equal split between those in favor and those opposed on the issue. And by the time of the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2015 that legalized same-sex marriage throughout the country, proponents led opponents, according to the <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2016/05/12/changing-attitudes-on-gay-marriage">Pew Research Center</a>, by 16 percentage points. The ruling was heralded by President Obama, who had <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/timeline-of-obamas-evolving-on-same-sex-marriage">“evolved”</a> to become supportive. The White House, where Democratic President Bill Clinton had signed a law banning federal recognition of same-sex marriages, was lit up in the colors of the rainbow flag.</p>
<p>How did such a dramatic change occur in a little more than 15 years? </p>
<p>Foremost, it was the demographic power of millennials that led to changes in opinion polls – a trend that policymakers could not ignore. Millennials generally see same-sex marriage as a basic civil rights issue and back it by a wide margin. Older generations have also become more supportive during the last decade, but by a much lesser degree. This means, <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2016/05/12/changing-attitudes-on-gay-marriage">demographically</a>, the number of individuals who are supportive will grow over time, while members of older generations, who are generally less supportive, will pass away.</p>
<p>Support for the issue among heterosexual millennials was largely based on their knowing individuals who self-disclosed to them as lesbian, gay or bisexual – friends, coworkers and sometimes partners. The issue became personal.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/118931/knowing-someone-gay-lesbian-affects-views-gay-issues.aspx">Research</a> has consistently found that heterosexual, <a href="http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/cisgender">cisgender</a> (non-transgender) people in the U.S. who know a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender individual are generally more supportive of that particular group and their rights. </p>
<p>It is difficult to deny the humanity of a group of people if someone close to you belongs to that group. And according to a 2015 Pew Research Center <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2015/06/08/section-2-knowing-gays-and-lesbians-religious-conflicts-beliefs-about-homosexuality/">poll</a>, 90 percent of heterosexual millennials report personally knowing someone who identifies as lesbian or gay. That includes 58 percent who have a close friend or family member who is out to them as lesbian or gay.</p>
<h2>To know us is to at least like us</h2>
<p>Trans people are just beginning to benefit from this support-by-personal-contact effect because there are seemingly fewer of us than cisgender lesbian, gay and bisexual people – and fewer of us are out. </p>
<p>A 2011 Williams Institute <a href="http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/research/census-lgbt-demographics-studies/how-many-people-are-lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgender">study</a> placed the number of LGBT people in the United States at approximately nine million, of which about 700,000 are transgender. In terms of U.S. adolescents, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/18/science/transgender-children.html">estimates</a> suggest between one-half percent and 1.5 percent are transgender, whereas <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3707280">estimates</a> of cisgender LGBQ youth range from 4 percent to 9 percent.</p>
<p>As reflected in schools and colleges throughout the country, a growing number of young people are <a href="http://www.umass.edu/stonewall/uploads/listWidget/8762/ACPA%20trans%20article.pdf">coming out</a> as trans. But many others are not out, or out to only a few cisgender family members, friends and colleagues, because the climate has often been hostile for trans people. A national study I conducted for a book I am writing on LGBTQ+ college students found that only about half of the students who identify outside of a gender binary were out to a parent.</p>
<p>According to a 2015 <a href="http://www.glaad.org/blog/new-poll-number-americans-who-report-knowing-transgender-person-doubles">Harris poll</a>, just 16 percent of non-LGBT people say that they personally know someone who identifies as transgender. While this figure is double the percent found in a 2008 <a href="http://www.glaad.org/blog/new-poll-number-americans-who-report-knowing-transgender-person-doubles">study</a>, it pales in comparison to that 90 percent figure for knowing someone lesbian or gay. For many cisgender individuals, trans people will remain a scary, amorphous danger until they knowingly have direct experiences with trans people.</p>
<p>There is a catch-22 here.</p>
<p>If more trans people were out, it would help improve the political and social climate for us. However, many trans people understandably do not want to self-disclose, if they can avoid it, because the current climate is often hostile. Trans individuals who are out now, many of whom are young people, regularly encounter <a href="http://www.transequality.org/issues/national-transgender-discrimination-survey">harassment</a> and <a href="http://www.glaad.org/blog/glaad-launches-trans-microaggressions-photo-project-transwk">microaggressions</a>, such as being misgendered and verbally and physically attacked in bathrooms.</p>
<p>But, at the same time, young, out trans people are bringing about changes in cisgender people’s attitudes that will help ensure trans individuals in the future will have equal rights and not experience this level of discrimination. </p>
<p>According to a 2015 Human Rights Campaign <a href="http://www.hrc.org/resources/hrc-national-survey-of-likely-voters">survey</a>, for example, 66 percent of cisgender individuals who said they know a transgender person expressed supportive feelings toward them, as compared to 37 percent support among cisgender individuals who indicated that they do not know a transgender person.</p>
<h2>Trans college students</h2>
<p>My own <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Leaving-No-Trans-College/233754">research</a> on transgender college students who have come out describes the struggles they must overcome to be treated with dignity on their campus. While some trans students find their college has policies in place to support them, most discover that their institution denies them the ability to feel safe and fully be themselves.</p>
<p>Few colleges formally acknowledge and respect transgender students by, for example, recognizing the first name that trans individuals use for themselves, providing a nonmedical means to switch the M/F gender marker on campus records, or enabling them to be recognized as neither M/F. Only about <a href="https://www.campuspride.org/tpc">150 colleges</a> enable trans students to change their name on campus records without having to make changes to legal documents, and only about 50 will change the gender marker without students having to making legal changes.</p>
<p>Similarly, colleges that do not provide gender-inclusive bathrooms, housing or locker rooms <a href="http://www.umass.edu/stonewall/uploads/listWidget/32741/About%20Campus%20article.pdf">signal</a> to trans students, whether intentionally or unintentionally, that they should not be out and are not welcomed at the institution. The lack of administrative support for trans students creates a negative campus climate. This is exacerbated by the failure of colleges to require students, staff and faculty to attend an educational session to address discrimination against trans people, as is <a href="http://news.berkeley.edu/2016/05/02/uc-berkeley-2-5-million-supplemental-investment-to-strengthen-response-to-sexual-violence-and-sexual-harassment/">commonly</a> done to counter sexual harassment.</p>
<p>The inclusion of gender identity and expression under Title IX’s prohibition against sex discrimination will make campuses more trans-inclusive over time. The law requires colleges to treat trans students in accordance with their identity and gives them recourse if they experience harassment or discrimination because of their gender identity or expression.</p>
<p>But laws and policies can only do so much. Transgender people and cisgender supporters will still need to push institutions and society at large to change and understand that gender is not a binary. This is gradually happening. </p>
<p>While open opposition to trans people being treated in keeping with their gender identity is increasing, so too is support. For example, the passage of North Carolina’s anti-transgender bathroom law has led to a boycott of the state by a <a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2016/04/why-the-hb2-boycott-of-north-carolina-is-working.html">growing list</a> of businesses, other state and city governments, national organizations and musicians. </p>
<p>A recent national opinion <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/09/politics/poll-transgender-bathroom-law-north-carolina">poll</a> finds that almost 60 percent of people in the U.S. oppose laws like the one in North Carolina. That same poll indicates that three-quarters of cisgender people support laws guaranteeing equal protection for transgender individuals.</p>
<p>It took 15 years to bring about a sea change on same-sex marriage. Transgender equality nationwide is not only a matter of time, but it is likely to happen faster.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59509/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Genny Beemyn is the director of the UMass Amherst Stonewall Center and the coordinator of the Trans Policy Clearinghouse for Campus Pride, a national LGBTQ youth advocacy organization.</span></em></p>New White House guidelines on sex discrimination have caused backlash in some states and school districts. But it won’t last, according to researcher at UMass Amherst.Genny Beemyn, Director, Stonewall Center, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/570282016-04-04T09:52:28Z2016-04-04T09:52:28ZWhat’s the backlash against gender-neutral bathrooms all about?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116985/original/image-20160331-31093-rnyhp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Transgender individuals could be harassed when they have to use gendered bathrooms.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brettlider/189969758/in/photolist-hMDoE-p4MtPK-rD3vnC-6wTjuH-kMAQc6-cU1GR-dGffTZ-cU1Nc-kMBxMt-ntE4Yo-cU1NU-8YzKS9-BXqcR-cU1J2-6fEsYT-rasjJN-5JV8Bz-kMAQEa-nk6tWc-kMASmX-pq6hNf-eRu3Uq-nBZ8sM-p5enut-rFeFzx-cU1JQ-cU1Le-pmJvNp-qmUg9n-6Qp7aM-rdEm87-5WaztU-5rKYRS-q5wAGQ-cU1LJ-cU1PP-qn1TT3-8Pk7MH-btdGa2-dQxiUB-spBJC8-7MkKGy-spua9N-spvgim-cU1Mw-roLDvG-9DAJc8-q5w2Xu-duQAC-7MXXxZ">Brett Lider</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week North Carolina became the first state to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/03/30/nc-transgender-bathroom-ban-is-a-national-embarrassment-says-ag-as-pilloried-law-becomes-key-election-issue/">pass a law</a> requiring transgender individuals (including students) to use only bathrooms that match their biological (rather than identified) gender. They did so in response to an <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/n-city-transgender-choice-public-bathroom-article-1.2540757">ordinance passed in Charlotte</a> that supported transgender bathroom choice. </p>
<p>Transgender students’ access to bathrooms is an increasingly active front for LGBTQ rights battles. Recent calls for safer bathrooms have inspired “shit-ins” at <a href="http://campusreform.org/?ID=6455">California Polytechnic</a> and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/29/sdsu-shit-in-gender-neutral-bathrooms_n_6069848.html">San Diego State</a>, where transgender advocates asked student allies to use only gender-neutral restrooms. In April last year, “urine” blockades <a href="http://www.dailycal.org/2015/04/30/bathroom-brigade-continues-efforts-to-push-for-more-all-gender-restrooms/">confronted Berkeley students</a> at Sather Gate, the main entrance to campus. Advocates filled plastic cups with fake urine and lined them up to greet students as they crossed the threshold into campus to protest inadequate restrooms for transgender students.</p>
<p>To a degree, these strategies have been effective. Courts, campuses and communities across the country have supported calls for transgender bathroom safety. </p>
<p>But in many cases, these efforts have launched a visceral backlash – now with North Carolina at its helm. It took state legislators only <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/03/28/north-carolina-bathroom-law-could-change-practices-public-colleges-and-universities">12 hours</a> to initiate, discuss and sign into law its prohibitions. </p>
<p>Why is bathroom safety so essential for transgendered individuals? And why is it greeted with such hostility?</p>
<h2>Issues of physical, emotional safety</h2>
<p>Studies show that transgender students can be harassed, sexually assaulted or subjected to other physical violence when they are required to use a gendered bathroom.</p>
<p>One survey, commissioned by the <a href="http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Herman-Gendered-Restrooms-and-Minority-Stress-June-2013.pdf">Williams Institute</a>, a think tank at UCLA, found that 68 percent of participants were subjected to homophobic slurs while trying to use the bathroom. Nine percent confronted physical violence.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116803/original/image-20160330-28451-kkodni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116803/original/image-20160330-28451-kkodni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116803/original/image-20160330-28451-kkodni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116803/original/image-20160330-28451-kkodni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116803/original/image-20160330-28451-kkodni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116803/original/image-20160330-28451-kkodni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116803/original/image-20160330-28451-kkodni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Studies have shown how use of bathroom results in assaults.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zappowbang/466812968/in/photolist-Hfxes-eefZ2p-9kV8Zc-ehrBL8-ehxizq-7m27qQ-9h8L5F-mYXfHf-8xuFeH-9hnH2c-ehryFP-ehrzi4-ehrzCK-8xxGKu-9kYdKC-bM5Hq4-gndp7V-i77iJ6-i76zC3-9kYbaC-nzxgu8-biTybn-9kRX8i-i76Upd-9kYbso-i77kTX-eaviCn-7Haptx-8UsHwV-i76tgM-9kYbWu-9kV514-Hfx97-asDYat-9kYdx3-3onp1-7Haw9k-HfAdV-9kV2bu-esvjh-8xuFsx-9kYbKf-i76Qyq-HUqgR-HTXK2-8xxGAs-8xtRp2-9kV6xp-nYTMPE-7kXdV8">Justin Henry</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Seventy percent of transgender individuals surveyed in Washington, D.C. <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/hobby-lobby-now-discriminating-against-transgender-employee/">experienced</a> verbal or physical assaults or were otherwise threatened when attempting to use the bathroom of their choice. Some experienced more than one form of such behavior.</p>
<p>Yet another survey found that <a href="http://comptroller.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/documents/Gender_Neutral_Bathrooms.pdf">26 percent of transgender students</a> in New York were denied access to their preferred bathrooms altogether.</p>
<p>As a result, transgender students need to constantly weigh the trade-offs as they consider bathroom options.</p>
<p>As one University of Washington student <a href="http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/seattle/2015/06/08/uw-gender-neutral-restroom/28678911/">articulates</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Do I choose physical safety or emotional safety? Do I choose physical health or mental health?</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Bathroom policies</h2>
<p>For some policymakers, these facts are compelling. For example, <a href="http://pittnews.com/62434/news/beds-and-bathrooms-pitt-goes-gender-neutral/">University of Pittsburgh,</a> <a href="http://www.houstonpress.com/arts/gender-neutral-bathrooms-are-opening-their-doors-in-houston-and-elsewhere-6392063">Arizona State University</a> and the <a href="http://www.pressherald.com/2014/01/30/maine_supreme_court__transgender_student_s_rights_were_violated/">University of Maine</a>, among several others, have established policies that would permit transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice. </p>
<p>K-12 settings too are making similar accommodations. For instance, California’s <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/parker-marie-molloy/californias-school-success-and-opportunity-act-_b_3786798.html">School Success and Opportunity Act</a> requires that all K-12 students be able to access bathrooms or locker rooms that are consistent with their own gender identity.</p>
<p>The private sector is responding as well. Hours after North Carolina passed its bill, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and other high-profile organizations <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/03/23/north-carolina-passes-bill-blocking-lgbt-protections/">expressed their opposition</a>. A <a href="http://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/business/2016/03/28/kroger-unisex-bathroom-explanation-draws-attention/82339114/">Kroger grocery store</a> in Georgia has gone one step beyond opposition and relabeled its bathrooms as gender-neutral. </p>
<h2>Bathroom panic</h2>
<p>But “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bathroom-panic_us_56f40300e4b0c3ef521820e3">bathroom panic</a>” appears to be the new focus in the story of gay rights backlash. </p>
<p><a href="http://dailycaller.com/2015/10/08/wisconsin-lawmakers-move-to-ban-transgender-students-from-using-bathroom-of-the-opposite-sex/">Wisconsin</a> is considering legislation that would impose significant burdens on schools attempting to support transgender bathroom safety. And in <a href="http://www.advocate.com/transgender/2016/3/01/breaking-south-dakota-gov-vetoes-anti-trans-bathroom-bill">South Dakota</a>, a bill that would have restricted transgender students’ use of restrooms, locker rooms and other gender-specific facilities was recently vetoed.</p>
<p>Incidents of backlash have surfaced in elementary schools as well. For example, an elementary school student in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/debate-rages-on-over-transgender-elementary-school-student-in-stafford/2015/04/06/56d7f324-d49f-11e4-ab77-9646eea6a4c7_story.html">Stafford County</a>, Virginia, was prohibited from using a bathroom associated with her gender identity after parents and politicians in the state spoke out against the student’s request.</p>
<p>Federal intervention too has sent out mixed signals. On the one hand, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/us/illinois-district-violated-transgender-students-rights-us-says.html">Department of Education</a> issued a letter to an Illinois school district stating that denying a transgender student’s rights to access a bathroom consistent with their gender identity is a violation of Title IX.</p>
<p>On the other hand, a <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/04/03/federal-judge-denies-claim-transgender-man-expelled-u-pittsburgh-over-restroom">federal court</a> rejected a transgender student’s claim that his equal rights were violated when his university rejected his request to use a locker room that matched his gender identity.</p>
<h2>Is it only about women’s safety?</h2>
<p>So, why is there is there so much backlash against these moves to provide safe bathrooms? </p>
<p>Opponents say that they are concerned about the possibility of men using <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/north-carolina-governor-signs-anti-anti-discrimination-bill-n544606">“women’s showers, locker rooms and bathrooms”</a> or <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/how-bathroom-fears-conquered-transgender-rights-in-houston/414016/">“sex offenders…follow[ing] women or young girls into the bathroom.”</a> But these explanations are problematic.</p>
<p>Bathroom opposition tends to affect far more than just bathrooms. In many cases, so-called “bathroom bills” create obstacles for all LGBTQ individuals in a variety of different settings. </p>
<p>In Houston, voters <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/houston-rejects-controversial-lgbt-equal-rights-measure-2167919">threw out an entire ordinance</a> outlawing LGBTQ discrimination (an ordinance that is <a href="http://www.hrc.org/resources/cities-and-counties-with-non-discrimination-ordinances-that-include-gender">now standard in over 200</a> cities and counties) because it would provide bathroom choice to transgender individuals. Similarly, North Carolina’s “bathroom bill” (HB2) <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/24/471700323/north-carolina-passes-law-blocking-measures-to-protect-lgbt-people">prohibits all municipalities</a> from passing any ordinance that protects LGBTQ individuals from discrimination. </p>
<p>These strategies suggest that something more than just concern for women’s safety is at play.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116804/original/image-20160330-28451-cspg69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116804/original/image-20160330-28451-cspg69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116804/original/image-20160330-28451-cspg69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116804/original/image-20160330-28451-cspg69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116804/original/image-20160330-28451-cspg69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116804/original/image-20160330-28451-cspg69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116804/original/image-20160330-28451-cspg69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many are opposing such redesigned bathrooms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/15383378381/in/photolist-prnQrK-nUbpXE-g9M4ew-2GADT-bLsNY-5MqcX6-QmSp-ppC9ww-nm6NLL-cU1Kx-4HZ1h7-54fKGJ-dEi3tf-DutLe-6wwf3q-e4tq3R-f6V5-gyxwsf-sG5PEZ-5epRX4-rasjkS-aVF1Pc-3gGJ-e1weL4-5Vr1UW-qCKuG-9bEc4i-hMD5V-2kVrP-czPdUw-uuk92-fZjq-abQZU-6wTjw6-cU1Qs-obmZb-5WazeY-9h2DKn-kMBzLD-sG5Esk-p4MtPK-rD3vnC-kMAQc6-dGffTZ-kMBxMt-ntE4Yo-6fEsYT-rasjJN-5JV8Bz-kMAQEa">Cory Doctorow</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Furthermore, this opposition exists even when transgender advocates invoke the needs of students with disabilities, those who may need “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/18/gender-neutral-bathrooms-colleges_n_5597362.html">family bathrooms</a>” and students who have survived sexual abuse and are more comfortable with single-stall facilities.</p>
<h2>Need for safety</h2>
<p>At this point, for many transgender students, bathroom options are limited.</p>
<p>Either they have to travel quite a distance to get to the nearest single-stall gender-neutral bathroom, or change in an “alternative” locker room (often a faculty bathroom or custodial closet).</p>
<p>There could even be days when they go to class in their workout clothes or “hold it in.” </p>
<p>Such options have clear drawbacks and health risks. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/27/opinion/for-transgender-americans-legal-battles-over-restrooms.html">Urinary tract infections</a>, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/10/14/3712394/wisconsin-transgender-school-discrimination/">depression</a> and even <a href="http://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2016.1157998">suicide</a> could be among them.</p>
<p>As a result, sometimes students see their <a href="http://hub.jhu.edu/2014/11/25/homewood-bathroom-signs">best option</a> as renting a house near campus so they can go home to use the bathroom.</p>
<p>One student in North Carolina has decided to fight HB2 – by using the letter of law. To anyone who might meet him, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/29/health/north-carolina-bathroom-law-cards/index.html">Charlie Comero</a> is a man. But because his birth certificate lists him as female, Charlie must now use the women’s bathroom. To offset any confusion about his presence in the women’s bathroom, Charlie passes out cards with the following text. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m following a law that was passed on March 23. I am a transgender man who would rather be using the men’s room right now. This is likely uncomfortable for both of us. Please contact your legislature and tell them you oppose HB2. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>To be sure, lawsuits have been filed and protests have ensued. But for now in North Carolina and elsewhere, transgender individuals (who are far more likely to be victims rather than perpetrators of assault) will be forced to fend for themselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57028/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Gash does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>North Carolina recently passed a law that prohibits individuals from using a bathroom based on the gender with which they identify. Why does this pose a risk for transgendered individuals?Alison Gash, Assistant Professor of Political Science , University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.