tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/transgender-bathroom-choice-26267/articlesTransgender bathroom choice – The Conversation2023-06-21T13:52:42Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2074472023-06-21T13:52:42Z2023-06-21T13:52:42ZBathrooms are political: how gender-inclusive toilets can combat indignity and violence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531679/original/file-20230613-22-8i55jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Swasdee/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A new hate crimes bill is inching <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2023/03/14/national-assembly-passes-bill-to-criminalise-hate-speech-and-hate-crimes">closer</a> to the possibility of becoming law in South Africa. The <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/hcbill/B9-2018-HateCrimesBill.pdf">bill</a> entrenches human dignity as a foundational value of the country by providing for penalties for explicit acts of violence and discrimination motivated by prejudice and intolerance.</p>
<p>However, prejudice and intolerance can also be expressed and experienced in everyday ways that are often taken for granted. The bill does not necessarily acknowledge this. It’s crucial to acknowledge that acts of discrimination happen not only in obvious forms of hate speech and violence in public spaces. They also happen in the everyday private spaces that form part of our homes, faith spaces, workplaces and, in particular, the bathrooms available in these spaces. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.psyssa.com/divisions/sexuality-and-gender-division-sgd/">psychologists</a> and <a href="https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7406-147X">scholars</a> working in the fields of sexualities and gender in a country with high levels of <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Rape.html?id=72NcjgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">gender-based violence</a>, we are sensitive to the anxieties of all people and, in particular, women, who voice an almost omnipresent sense of the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17450101.2021.1942171">threat</a> of violence in public spaces. But we’ve also come to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10130950.2017.1369717">understand</a> that people whose gender appearance may be “non-normative” often feel unsafe in public bathrooms.</p>
<p>As the debate around gender-inclusive toilets rages around the world, we argue that shared bathrooms create more inclusive societies that ultimately protect human dignity.</p>
<h2>Bathrooms are public-private spaces</h2>
<p>The bathroom, a seemingly private yet inherently public space, has become subject to intense scrutiny. Especially regarding the rights of trans and gender diverse individuals, both in <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/news/petition-against-unisex-bathrooms-at-schools-garners-thousands-of-signatures-cf9c8046-27d6-4ec1-9729-b4d6316177db">South Africa</a> and <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/more-states-consider-bills-limiting-which-bathroom-trans-people-can-use">abroad</a>. (A transgender person identifies with a gender different from that of their sex that’s assigned at birth. A gender diverse person has a gender identity or expression that’s at odds with what’s perceived as being the social norm.)</p>
<p>The public bathroom has become a lightning rod for a general social anxiety about safety and gender. Are women safe if a trans woman uses the same bathroom? What does it mean to the gender (and indeed sexuality) of men if a trans man uses the “men’s bathroom”? Aren’t children at risk if anyone can “decide” they are trans and walk into a public bathroom? Why can’t we keep things simple and make people go to the bathroom according to their sex assigned at birth? </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-did-public-bathrooms-get-to-be-separated-by-sex-in-the-first-place-59575">How did public bathrooms get to be separated by sex in the first place?</a>
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<p>It’s in this context of moral and personal panic, we argue, that in fact it’s trans and gender diverse people who are most at risk of a “quiet violence” as they attempt to access and navigate these everyday spaces.</p>
<p>This discrimination is “quiet” because it does not appear as the kind of overt act of violence that the hate crimes bill seeks to legislate against, such as a transphobic slur or assault. However, it remains a form of violence because trans and gender diverse people <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10130950.2017.1369717">feel</a> policed and threatened navigating these spaces.</p>
<h2>Bathrooms as political arenas</h2>
<p>Bathrooms hold more than a functional purpose; they’re historically significant sites of overt and covert political struggles. Throughout social justice movements worldwide, bathrooms have played pivotal <a href="https://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/05/bathrooms_culture_wars_front_l.html">roles</a>. In the US, bathrooms became contested <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=dQO5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA235&dq=history+of+bathroom+struggles+in+the+united+states&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjk17-ym77_AhUMBcAKHYYUB_8Q6AF6BAgJEAI#v=onepage&q&f=false">spaces</a> during civil rights movements for women’s rights, desegregation and disability rights.</p>
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<span class="caption">South Africa, 1977.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrzej Sawa/Sunday Times/Gallo/Getty Images</span></span>
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<p><a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">Apartheid</a> also <a href="https://www.whiteswritingwhiteness.ed.ac.uk/traces/reservation-of-separate-amenities-act-1953/">enforced</a> strict policing and segregation of public amenities including swimming pools, beaches and toilets. This perpetuated institutionalised racism and a disregard for the dignity and worth of people of colour. </p>
<p>This legacy <a href="https://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/files/amisi%20nojiyeza.pdf">endures</a> in historically marginalised communities, where the “<a href="https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=15574">bucket system</a>” (non-flush toilets where a bucket is used to collect waste), <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/body-of-4-year-old-girl-found-in-eastern-cape-school-pit-toilet-20230309">pit latrines</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/flushing-toilets-arent-the-solution-to-south-africas-sanitation-problem-194768">inadequate sanitation facilities</a> persist.</p>
<h2>The gendered nature of bathrooms</h2>
<p>Choosing between “men’s” and “women’s” bathrooms subjects an individual to a normative system that organises and disciplines their body based on a sex-segregated understanding of gender. </p>
<p>This system enforces a binary of gender, defined solely by two biological sexes – male and female. For trans and gender diverse individuals, selecting a bathroom becomes a calculation of self-preservation. This requires <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0966369X.2015.1073699?src=recsys">self-surveillance</a> in an effort to minimise the likelihood of <a href="https://galop.org.uk/resource/transphobic-hate-crime-report-2020/">harassment</a> and violence for deviating from normative gender presentations.</p>
<h2>Violence and discrimination in bathrooms</h2>
<p>Bathrooms are often <a href="https://academic.oup.com/hsw/article-abstract/46/4/260/6378750">reported</a> to be distressing spaces for trans and gender diverse individuals, becoming sites where they experience discrimination and exclusion. Occupying gendered facilities can <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10538720.2021.1920539?src=recsys">lead</a> to discomfort, verbal abuse and physical assault. Being forced to “hold in” basic biological functions can also <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-35588-001">result</a> in health problems.</p>
<p>Calls for these individuals to use bathrooms aligned with their assigned sex at birth don’t only demonstrate the binary model of gender. They are discriminatory and foster <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/casp.851">conditions</a> that perpetuate violence, confusion and negative attitudes towards trans individuals. It’s crucial to recognise that violence against trans and gender diverse people is often overlooked. </p>
<h2>Ensuring recognition and safety</h2>
<p>It’s critical to acknowledge women’s concerns regarding the prospect of sexual assault in using gender-inclusive bathrooms. It’s equally crucial to challenge the notion that bodies assigned male at birth are inherently violent and that safety can only be guaranteed through gender-specific or sex-segregated bathroom arrangements. </p>
<p>Studies from <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9407760/">Australia</a>, the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1948550617737601?casa_token=vK1Yv9s3sAkAAAAA:dDCHBNWF8DmsYge3J8CB5cFXlYZBvOHVIrjM7PD8MkSt6vgCaeoK6Mj95LucYLhlfqKrjGfiz9xr8xk">US</a> and the <a href="http://shura.shu.ac.uk/21258/1/Around%20the%20Toilet%20Report%20final%201.pdf">UK</a> have suggested that gender-inclusive facilities do not compromise <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-018-0335-z">safety</a> or privacy. </p>
<p>In fact, they serve as <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/19r9v71k">catalysts</a> for social change, challenging binary constructs and debunking the notion of inherent male violence. Reducing violence to a specifically gendered body overlooks the <a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_605">complex</a> social psychology of violence, which is rooted in gendered power asymmetries, control and dehumanisation.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lgbtiq-learners-at-risk-in-south-africa-as-conservative-christian-groups-fight-plans-for-safer-schools-194823">LGBTIQ learners at risk in South Africa as conservative Christian groups fight plans for safer schools</a>
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<p>By recognising the discrimination that trans and gender diverse people face in these spaces and implementing new gender-inclusive bathroom arrangements which accommodate all people, we believe that inclusive societies can challenge harmful assumptions and contribute to the cause of dignity for all.</p>
<p><em>This article was revised.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207447/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jarred H Martin sits on the Executive Committee for the Sexuality and Gender Division of the Psychological Society of South Africa. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pierre Waldemar Brouard is affiliated with the Sexuality and Gender Division of the Psychological Society of South Africa and is a board member of the Professional Association of Transgender Health South Africa.</span></em></p>Studies show unisex toilets don’t lead to violence – and they create a safer space for gender diverse people.Jarred H Martin, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, University of PretoriaPierre Waldemar Brouard, Acting director of the Centre for Sexualities, AIDS & Gender, University of Pretoria, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1690132021-12-08T13:37:23Z2021-12-08T13:37:23ZTrans people have a long history in Appalachia – but politicians prefer to ignore it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435863/original/file-20211206-15-nrbp9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=189%2C395%2C5240%2C2908&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Parents and activists who support transgender rights rally before a school board meeting on Aug. 10, 2021, in Ashburn, Virginia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/charlotte-mcconnell-of-sterling-va-leads-a-rally-of-parents-news-photo/1234616774?adppopup=true">Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent public debate throughout the South, transness – the fact of being transgender – is <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/political-minds/202012/new-book-irreversible-damage-is-full-misinformation">framed as a kind of new social contagion</a>.</p>
<p>Count me among the afflicted.</p>
<p>When I first moved to Appalachia in 2015, I expected to find a hostile environment for my own transition. Instead, I met trans people of all ages whose stories demonstrate that there is nothing new about being transgender in southwest Virginia.</p>
<p>Yet this remarkable history is all but forgotten. </p>
<p>When politicians frame transgender youth as a new phenomenon, they ignore the fact <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/histories-of-the-transgender-child">that gender nonconforming young people have existed for generations</a>. Without a historical perspective, decisions can be made that negatively impact young people. </p>
<p>For example, recent legislation in the South has focused on <a href="https://theconversation.com/anti-transgender-bills-are-latest-version-of-conservatives-longtime-strategy-to-rally-their-base-158296">prohibiting transgender youths</a> from a variety of activities, including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/oct/26/texas-signs-into-law-bill-banning-transgender-athletes-from-school-sports">school athletics</a> and lifesaving <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/states-pursue-wave-anti-lgbtq-laws-cities-move-direction-rcna5890">health care</a>.</p>
<p>In southwest Virginia, <a href="https://wset.com/news/local/russell-co-school-board-unanimously-rejects-vdoe-transgender-issues-model-policy">several county school boards</a> in the <a href="https://newsadvance.com/news/local/education/watch-now-in-split-vote-bedford-school-board-rejects-state-model-policies-on-treatment-of/article_e09bd5c2-f0b7-11eb-9e7b-a78828caa0f9.html">summer of 2021</a> voted to reject new state guidelines aimed at providing support for transgender students. </p>
<p>And in November, Glenn Youngkin won the Virginia governorship on a platform of “<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/how-white-women-helped-propel-republicans-victory-virginia-n1283153">parents’ rights</a>,” building on <a href="https://www.virginiamercury.com/2021/10/29/in-2020-the-legislature-passed-a-transgender-students-rights-law-it-largely-hasnt-been-enforced/">the furor of parents</a> regarding the state’s overreach on curricular matters and policies regarding trans students. </p>
<p>This ongoing panic over transgender bodies is evidence of the increasing visibility of transgender people in rural America. As a <a href="https://gsrosenthal.com/">trans woman</a> who <a href="https://directory.roanoke.edu/faculty/rosenthal">researches and writes about transgender history</a>, I know this history well.</p>
<h2>Local transgender voices</h2>
<p>In my book “<a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469665801/living-queer-history/">Living Queer History: Remembrance and Belonging in a Southern City</a>,” I write about Miss Carolyn. She grew up in rural West Virginia in the 1950s and 1960s. </p>
<p>As she tells it: “I always been Carolyn from 5 all the way up to 67. But I always been, I always know the way I was.” As a teenager, she would sneak out late at night with a friend, both of them dressed in women’s clothes, and dance sexily down the streets. </p>
<p>But it wasn’t until she moved to Roanoke, Virginia, in 1972 that she was able to become her full self. She started performing on area stages as a queen and worked downtown as a sex worker. In an era of desegregation, she became the first Black queen to win the region’s premier drag pageant in 1975.</p>
<p>When a college student interviewed her in 2018 about her life, she said some people call her “she,” some call her “he,” and she doesn’t mind which you use. She said that the word “transgender” wasn’t a thing when she was growing up and coming out, but if she had known what she knows now she would have claimed “transgender” for herself. </p>
<p>Carolyn was not alone. She mentored several other queens in Roanoke who worked at nightclubs and in the streets.</p>
<p>One of those performers was a young white trans woman named Rhoda who grew up in Roanoke in the 1950s. While attending college, Rhoda underwent “a battery of psychological tests,” as she put it. Ultimately, a doctor at the University of Virginia’s <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/r781wg07h">Gender Identity Program</a> prescribed her with the hormones estrogen and progestin. </p>
<p>By the time she took the stage in Roanoke in 1977 she had visible breasts. She had recently changed her legal identification and was preparing to marry a man and live her life as a woman. </p>
<p>“I’m a transsexual – a woman,” she told <a href="http://lgbthistory.pages.roanoke.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2020/02/Long-Road-from-Man-to-Woman.pdf">a local magazine in 1977</a>. “Ever since I can remember, that’s the way I’ve felt.” </p>
<p>Outside the world of clubs, another white trans woman named Rona was a local activist who in the 1970s distributed <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Transvestite_and_His_Wife/pwXaAAAAMAAJ?hl=en">literature about transgender families</a> to local public libraries. </p>
<p>She also made sure local police departments had up-to-date information on transgender people. In 1980, she helped to found the first transgender organization in southwest Virginia, a budding chapter of the national <a href="https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8dz0bfv/#:%7E:text=Society%20for%20the%20Second%20Self%20(Tri%2DEss)%20Records&text=Tri%2DEss%20is%20a%20non,or%20spouses%2C%20and%20their%20families.&text=Tri%2DEss%20is%20a%20member,International%20Foundation%20for%20Gender%20Education.">Society for the Second Self</a>, or Tri-Ess. Rona raised the issue of transgender rights in southwest Virginia five decades before local school boards here would return to the issue.</p>
<h2>Trans youth and trans history</h2>
<p>Transgender history has the power to shape contemporary experiences of belonging. For trans youths in rural communities, history can be a tool not just for knowing the past but for reimagining our present.
These stories let young people know that they are not alone, that they are not the first to struggle, and that they have a right to be here. </p>
<p>For several years I co-led a workshop with the <a href="http://lgbthistory.pages.roanoke.edu">Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ History Project</a> at a summer camp for LGBTQ teenagers in the Appalachian Mountains. This workshop, “Living Trans History,” asked participants, some of whom were as young as middle school age, to read excerpts from oral histories with trans elders. </p>
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<span class="caption">Supporters celebrate transgender protection measures that were voted into the school systems policies, at the Loudoun County Public Schools Administration Building on Aug. 11, 2021, in Ashburn, Virginia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/supporters-of-policy-8040-celebrate-with-signs-as-the-news-photo/1234630509?adppopup=true">Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>After reading the transcripts, the youths were put into small groups and tasked with developing short theatrical performances that brought these elders’ stories to life. One group created a skit focused on the role of the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/12/02/religious-groups-policies-on-transgender-members-vary-widely/">church in denouncing gender nonconformity</a>. Another performance centered on a trans woman who found an unlikely home in a rough-and-tumble bar. Another was about a sex worker who worked the streets of Roanoke. </p>
<p>After their performances, we asked the campers to reflect on their experiences with these stories. They highlighted the similarities and differences across the generations and remarked on their new understanding of themselves. They also realized that they were not the first trans people to live in southwest Virginia, a recognition that can foster a renewed sense of meaning and belonging.</p>
<p>If rural transgender history is brought to light, perhaps it will help communities such as mine remember that trans people have always been here.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Transness itself is a reminder of the past – an assigned sex, a given name, a pubescent body. It is difficult for trans people to escape from that history, and it can feel like abuse. Perhaps that’s why <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674032392">queer studies scholar Heather Love writes</a> that for LGBTQ people, “The challenge is to engage with the past without being destroyed by it.”</p>
<p>Trans youths experience the abuse of having their own personal histories used against them by school administrators and sometimes by their own parents. But they deserve to know a richer archive than just what’s printed on their birth certificates. Trans history has the power to transform. It gives communities the tools they need for making safer spaces for all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169013/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>G. Samantha Rosenthal is co-founder of the Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ History Project </span></em></p>The ongoing debate over transgender rights in rural America frames transness as a nascent movement, ignoring a long undercurrent of transgender history that is all but forgotten.G. Samantha Rosenthal, Associate Professor of History, Roanoke CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1583482021-04-30T12:14:40Z2021-04-30T12:14:40ZHow to tell if your college is trans-inclusive<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394318/original/file-20210409-13-1kp3esb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6000%2C3952&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An affirming college environment can set trans youth on a path of personal, academic and professional success.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ItalyTransgenderStudents/0cd6a05203584197992fe714477fd70f">Alessandra Tarantino/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>High school can be especially challenging for the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/02/05/more-u-s-teens-identify-transgender-survey-finds/306357002/">2%-3% of U.S. teens</a> who identify as transgender, or trans. They disproportionately experience <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6803a3.htm">harassment and victimization</a> by their peers and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/cpp0000291">rejection by family members</a>. </p>
<p>Entering an affirming and inclusive college environment can help set trans youth on a path of personal, academic and professional success. </p>
<p>A trans-affirming college can also be transformative for trans students who did not feel comfortable being out in high school, as well as those who do not begin to explore their gender identity until college.</p>
<p>My research with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10474412.2018.1480376">507 trans and gender-nonconforming students</a> – 75% undergraduate, 25% graduate – examined which college policies and supports trans students most valued. I also looked at how these policies created a sense of belonging on campus. </p>
<p>I found that religiously affiliated colleges and community colleges tended to be less inclusive of trans students. Also, knowing that a school had trans-inclusive policies and supports led to a greater feeling of belonging and better perception of the campus climate. The students listed gender-inclusive restrooms, nondiscrimination policies that include gender identity and the ability to easily change one’s name on campus records as supports they valued most. </p>
<p>Based on these findings, here are a few key concrete things that trans students – and their families – may want to consider in the college exploration process.</p>
<h2>Gender-inclusive restrooms</h2>
<p>Trans students can look for whether most campus buildings – especially those with heavy traffic, such as the campus center – have gender-inclusive restrooms. These may also be called gender-neutral or all-gender restrooms. </p>
<p>Bonus points go to institutions whose gender-inclusive restrooms have multiple stalls to accommodate more people, and to those that have committed to constructing gender-inclusive restrooms <a href="https://www.ucop.edu/construction-services/facilities-manual/resource-directories-rds/rd4-project-programmatic-guidelines/rd-4-1.html">in all new buildings</a>. Athletic facilities, meanwhile, ideally have private changing facilities and private showers. </p>
<p>This kind of systemic inclusion can support <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000360">students’ mental health</a> and academic achievement. For example, one study found that not having access to inclusive and comfortable restrooms was associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15313204.2016.1263817">poorer academic performance</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394328/original/file-20210409-23-18fc5be.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Photo of a sign for a gender-neutral restroom" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394328/original/file-20210409-23-18fc5be.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394328/original/file-20210409-23-18fc5be.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394328/original/file-20210409-23-18fc5be.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394328/original/file-20210409-23-18fc5be.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394328/original/file-20210409-23-18fc5be.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394328/original/file-20210409-23-18fc5be.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394328/original/file-20210409-23-18fc5be.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gender-inclusive restrooms are one of the key college policies that trans students most value.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TransgenderBathroomInitiative/905a6a1b72564d67b4fe69ca1d097bae">Toby Talbot/AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Gender-inclusive housing</h2>
<p>Gender-inclusive housing refers to the ability to be housed in keeping with one’s gender identity, and to choose whom to room with – among returning students, at least – regardless of gender. According to Campus Pride, a nonprofit network of LGBTQ student leaders and campus groups, <a href="https://www.campuspride.org/tpc/gender-inclusive-housing/">271 colleges and universities</a> in the U.S. have gender-inclusive housing. </p>
<h2>Nondiscrimination policies</h2>
<p>Prospective students may want to look at schools’ nondiscrimination policies to make sure they explicitly include gender identity and expression. Here’s <a href="https://www.campuspride.org/tpc/nondiscrimination/">a list</a> of the 1,071 colleges and universities that currently do. Such policies protect trans students from discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression, and serve to symbolize the institutions’ commitment to fairness and equity.</p>
<h2>Chosen name and pronouns options</h2>
<p>Prospective students may also want to investigate whether institutions allow students to <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/09/17/growing-number-colleges-let-students-pick-their-names">use a chosen first name</a>, instead of their legal name, on campus records, ID cards, course rosters and other documents. According to Campus Pride, <a href="https://www.campuspride.org/tpc/records/">265 colleges and universities</a> in the U.S. currently allow students to do this, and an additional 43 allow students to indicate their pronouns on course rosters. </p>
<h2>Health and counseling services</h2>
<p>Campus health care centers may or may not serve trans students’ needs, such as prescribing and overseeing hormone treatments. Likewise, trans students should find out whether the student health insurance covers trans-affirming medical care. </p>
<p>Campus Pride reports that 89 colleges and universities currently <a href="https://www.campuspride.org/tpc/student-health-insurance/">cover hormones and gender-affirming surgeries</a> in their student health insurance plans, while 23 cover hormones alone.</p>
<p>According to the Cooperative Institutional Research Program Freshman Survey, incoming trans college students tend to report <a href="https://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/2017/spring/stolzenberg_hughes">poorer emotional health</a> than their peers who are cisgender, or cis – meaning their gender identity aligns with their assigned sex at birth. They are also more <a href="https://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/2017/spring/stolzenberg_hughes">likely to anticipate seeking counseling</a> while in college. Therefore it may be important that the student counseling center is explicitly inclusive of trans people. This means, for example, having a counselor who identifies as trans, or at least a counselor trained on the needs and experiences of trans people.</p>
<h2>Affinity groups</h2>
<p>Prospective students can also find out whether there is a campus LGBTQ student center or group, ideally with affiliate groups or clubs – for example, for trans students or queer students of color. It’s important to note that more niche groups may be harder to find at smaller institutions.</p>
<h2>Training on gender identity</h2>
<p>Some institutions offer or require <a href="https://www.purdue.edu/lgbtq/training/trans_inclusion.php">training for staff, faculty and even students</a>, such as peer advisers and student orientation leaders, on gender identity and the experiences of trans people. The level of awareness a campus community has about trans issues and people is closely related to classroom and campus climate for trans students. </p>
<p>My research has found that nonbinary students – those whose gender identities lie outside the male/female gender binary, as opposed to trans men and trans women – also face <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000019827568">heightened and unique challenges</a> in college. They report chronic misgendering – being referred to as she/her or he/him instead of they/them – as well as an inability to accurately represent themselves <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2018.1429979">on forms and paperwork</a>.</p>
<h2>Coursework and research opportunities</h2>
<p>Students may also be interested in examining whether faculty teach courses that are trans-inclusive and affirming, such as <a href="https://gendersexuality.northwestern.edu/courses/descriptions/321-transgender-history.html">trans history</a> or trans literature. They can also look to see if the school has faculty research centers that <a href="https://lgbt.arizona.edu/trans-studies-research-cluster">focus on trans experiences</a>. </p>
<h2>Financial and material support</h2>
<p>Trans students often enter college with <a href="https://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/2017/spring/stolzenberg_hughes">more financial concerns</a> than their cis peers. These may relate to hormone treatments and gender confirmation surgeries in addition to funding their college education.</p>
<p>Further, trans students are more likely to report <a href="https://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/2017/spring/stolzenberg_hughes">needing to work full-time</a> during college, and also receiving <a href="https://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/2017/spring/stolzenberg_hughes">more financial aid</a> than cis students.</p>
<p>Some schools have an <a href="https://www.kent.edu/lgbtq/financial-support">emergency fund for trans students</a> in need of basic assistance, or other free on-campus resources such as “<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/across-u-s-several-colleges-open-clothing-closets-trans-students-n915861">clothing closets</a>” for trans and gender-nonconforming students.</p>
<h2>Other questions to ask</h2>
<p>A number of other markers of trans inclusion can be harder to immediately assess. </p>
<p>Prospective students can ask tour guides and student ambassadors about whether there are any trans people in student government, the overall climate for trans students and whether campus events frequently include <a href="https://www.clarku.edu/departments/womens-and-gender-studies/event/trans-rights-priorities-for-the-biden-administration/">issues of interest to trans students</a>, including trans speakers. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394324/original/file-20210409-17-1xvucz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="University of Virginia's first transgender student council president, Abel Liu" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394324/original/file-20210409-17-1xvucz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394324/original/file-20210409-17-1xvucz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394324/original/file-20210409-17-1xvucz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394324/original/file-20210409-17-1xvucz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394324/original/file-20210409-17-1xvucz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394324/original/file-20210409-17-1xvucz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394324/original/file-20210409-17-1xvucz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">University of Virginia students elected Abel Liu, the first openly transgender student council president at a prominent U.S. college, in March 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TheQueerStudentUnionattheUniversityofVirginiaAnnouncestheElectionoftheFirstOpenlyTransgenderandFirstChinese-AmericanStudentCouncilPresident/dae7c970f4abce268b0c6391f8c239f0">Business Wire/AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other features to look for are campus <a href="https://www.northwestern.edu/diversity/initiatives/gqnbt-task-force/index.html">task forces or committees</a> that address and include trans people, the presence of trans faculty and staff, and specialized student orientation content or modules for trans students. </p>
<p>It may also be possible to be connected to current trans students or recent alumni to hear about their experiences and ask about anything else that a prospective trans student should know.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158348/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abbie E. Goldberg 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>These are some of the key features and policies that trans prospective students may want to consider in their college exploration process.Abbie E. Goldberg, Professor of Psychology, Clark UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/740232017-03-27T02:39:47Z2017-03-27T02:39:47ZBetter locker rooms: It’s not just a transgender thing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161828/original/image-20170321-5395-l8qkdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C210%2C4260%2C2155&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mack Beggs, a 17-year-old transgender boy, made national headlines when he won the Texas state wrestling title in the girls' division.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Several cases working their way through the legal system have placed a national spotlight on the issue of <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-why-transgender-students-need-safe-bathrooms-50831">transgender access to bathrooms</a>. While some states have taken steps to allow access based on gender identity, many are <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/-bathroom-bill-legislative-tracking635951130.aspx">considering legislation</a> that restricts bathroom use by the sex assigned at birth.</p>
<p>Most of these court cases also apply to student athlete access to locker rooms and question schools’ obligations to provide appropriate facilities as well as the rights transgender athletes have to access these facilities.</p>
<p>The result has been considerable debate over how to accommodate the needs of transgender athletes. As researchers who focus on diversity and inclusion in sport, we see significant changes in the ways trans athletes are treated and believe there are pragmatic solutions available that will serve all athletes.</p>
<h2>The changing landscape of sport for trans athletes</h2>
<p>While legislative battles over transgender rights have been focused on school bathrooms, the issue of <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-07-17/five-trans-athletes-who-made-their-mark-caitlyn-jenner">transgender rights in the entire sporting world</a> is not a new one. Changes at higher levels indicate a shifting, more trans-inclusive sport landscape.</p>
<p>The International Olympic Committee (<a href="https://www.olympic.org/the-ioc">IOC</a>), which for a long time was recognized as having one of the <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=2149799">most exclusionary policies</a> in sport, recently made some influential and groundbreaking changes. The old policy allowed transgender Olympians to participate only if they had transitioned via sex reassignment surgery, had completed at least two years of hormone therapy and could provide legal documentation of their transition.</p>
<p>In November 2015 (just two months before the Rio Olympics) the IOC changed course. Finding the previous trans policy to be unsupported by scientific evidence and recognized as excluding – rather than including – trans athletes, the committee <a href="https://stillmed.olympic.org/Documents/Commissions_PDFfiles/Medical_commission/2015-11_ioc_consensus_meeting_on_sex_reassignment_and_hyperandrogenism-en.pdf">revised it</a>: Trans men (athletes assigned female sex at birth and who identify as a man) can compete without restriction. Trans women (athletes assigned male sex at birth and who identify as a woman) can compete as long as they have testosterone levels below a certain threshold.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162405/original/image-20170324-12129-4krepz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162405/original/image-20170324-12129-4krepz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162405/original/image-20170324-12129-4krepz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162405/original/image-20170324-12129-4krepz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162405/original/image-20170324-12129-4krepz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162405/original/image-20170324-12129-4krepz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162405/original/image-20170324-12129-4krepz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Organizations like the You Can Play Project help strive for LGBTQ-inclusive athletic programs across the country.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.youcanplayproject.org/">You Can Play Project</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The IOC is not alone in shifting to a more trans-inclusive approach. The <a href="http://www.ncaa.org/">NCAA</a> – the governing body of college athletics in the U.S. – implemented a <a href="https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/Transgender_Handbook_2011_Final.pdf">new policy</a> in 2011. At colleges and universities across the United States, trans women can now compete against other women as long as they have had at least one year of hormone treatment.</p>
<p>Interestingly, it’s in the context of high school athletics where trans athlete policies <a href="https://www.transathlete.com/k-12">vary the most</a>. The <a href="https://www.transathlete.com/k-12">majority</a> of state high school athletic associations permit athletes to compete according to their gender identities.</p>
<p>A handful, however, have more restrictive policies than the IOC or NCAA. In these cases, transgender students are often prevented from competing in the category that matches their gender identity. One such state is Texas, where a transgender boy recently <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/07371f06bd084b1c90ef9a75dc45fec1/transgender-boy-moves-within-1-win-girls-texas-title">won the high school state championship</a> in girls’ wrestling, as he was required to compete based on the sex listed on his birth certificate.</p>
<h2>Locker rooms and facilities</h2>
<p>As with policies governing their participation in high school sports, policies influencing trans athletes’ use of locker rooms vary considerably by state – and even by school. In some cases, trans athletes may be restricted to use facilities congruent with their sex assigned at birth. In other cases, they’re restricted to separate facilities specifically for them.</p>
<p>To illustrate, consider the case of a high school in <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/settlement-reached-palatine-ill-township-high-school-district-211-remedy-transgender-discrimination">Palatine, Illinois</a>. There, a transgender female athlete was permitted to play on girls’ teams, but she was excluded from the girls’ locker room. The locker room contained private changing areas that the student intended to use. Nevertheless, she was forced to use a private changing area located in another part of the building. The Department of Education found this exclusion to violate the student’s civil rights and eventually reached <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/documents/press-releases/township-high-211-agreement.pdf">an agreement</a> with the school district that now permits the student to access the girls’ locker room.</p>
<h2>Why does it matter?</h2>
<p>Specialized, private facilities can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/bsr.2016.0008">magnify the potential for isolation</a>. In the now-infamous case of Gavin Grimm, he was asked to use a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/opinion/gavin-grimm-the-fight-for-transgender-rights-is-bigger-than-me.html">retrofitted broom closet and nurse’s restroom</a> because he was a transgender student. </p>
<p>In such cases, the transgender students may internalize the message of their <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2016.1157998">unequal worth</a>. Such isolation also physically separates trans athletes from much of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/16/opinion/sunday/is-it-time-to-desegregate-the-sexes.html">bonding</a> and planning that goes on among teammates in a locker room. </p>
<p>It is not just transgender students who are affected. All others are privy to these cues. When this happens, observers are likely to adopt views that transgender persons are <a href="http://everydayfeminism.com/2016/02/130-examples-cis-privilege/">lesser than</a> their peers. </p>
<h2>Inclusive locker rooms: The best option for all athletes</h2>
<p>A more inclusive option is to allow all athletes to access facilities – including locker rooms – that are consistent with their gender identities.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/public-bathroom-regulations-could-create-a-title-ix-crisis">Two objections</a>, however, are sometimes raised to gender-inclusive locker rooms: safety and privacy.</p>
<p>Arguments around safety are sometimes expressed as a concern that transgender individuals themselves are a threat to <a href="http://www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/07/31/true-meaning-word-cisgender">cisgender</a> female users of the locker room. Other times, it’s fear of the <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/sexual-assault-domestic-violence-organizations-debunk-bathroom-predator/story?id=38604019">alleged risk</a> posed by non-transgender men – the belief that men may take advantage of the inclusive policy to enter the girls’ locker room without restriction.</p>
<p>Neither of these concerns, however, has any <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/sexual-assault-domestic-violence-organizations-debunk-bathroom-predator/story?id=38604019">empirical basis</a>. The latter, in fact, reflects an illogical presumption that a sign on the door keeps criminals out of locker rooms. </p>
<p>Privacy, on the other hand, is a relevant consideration, but not a reason to exclude transgender athletes from gender-appropriate locker rooms. Rather, privacy is a concern for <a href="http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonianextra/2009/07/shower_together_at_school_no_w.html">many students</a> faced with the prospect of communal showers and large undifferentiated changing areas. It would seem that <a href="http://clubindustry.com/forprofits/health-club-members-want-more-privacy-locker-rooms">most individuals</a> – irrespective of their gender identity and expression – <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/22/us/students-still-sweat-they-just-don-t-shower.html">don’t want to</a> change in the open or bathe in gang showers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162393/original/image-20170324-12152-2ce80j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162393/original/image-20170324-12152-2ce80j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162393/original/image-20170324-12152-2ce80j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162393/original/image-20170324-12152-2ce80j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162393/original/image-20170324-12152-2ce80j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162393/original/image-20170324-12152-2ce80j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162393/original/image-20170324-12152-2ce80j.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">Open, communal showers like these are still present in schools across the country. They are generally disliked by most students, transgender or not.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AGyrec009.JPG">I.Sáček / Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To alleviate the discomfort that all students – transgender and cisgender alike – might experience in such settings, as new schools are built, <a href="http://www.athleticbusiness.com/locker-room/key-drivers-of-campus-locker-room-renovations.html">new locker rooms</a> across the country are being designed <a href="http://www.omaha.com/news/education/as-schools-install-more-private-stalls-popularity-of-open-showers/article_fccc3dc7-cd93-5b79-98d7-4e64b5f2cc0c.html">with privacy in mind</a>, with individual showers and changing areas available for any student. Meanwhile, existing locker rooms can be effectively and inexpensively retrofitted with privacy screens, as was done at <a href="https://altamontenterprise.com/06012016/ny-and-local-districts-want-accommodate-transgender-students">several schools in New York</a>.</p>
<p>Many institutions and sport governing bodies recognize this as <a href="http://www.athleticbusiness.com/locker-room/designing-public-locker-rooms-with-an-eye-on-privacy.html">best practice</a> that promotes not only the inclusion of transgender athletes, but any athlete with a preference for modesty. </p>
<p>The national governing body for collegiate intramural and recreation offers <a href="http://nirsa.net/nirsa/wp-content/uploads/here.pdf">guidance</a> that addresses both transgender athlete needs and the needs of all students: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Transgender student-athletes should be able to use the locker room, shower, and toilet facilities in accordance with the student’s gender identity. Every locker room should have some private, enclosed changing areas, showers, and toilets for use by any athlete who desires them.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Given the problems associated with open locker room concepts, the answer for better services, privacy, and trans inclusion all revolve around better locker room spaces. </p>
<h2>The answer: Inclusive principles for all athletes</h2>
<p>It’s possible that the courts will soon clarify the obligation of education institutions to accommodate transgender students’ use of segregated facilities. Regardless of the outcome, sport associations in the educational context and beyond can, and in our view should, continue to lead the way toward more inclusive practices and spaces for all athletes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74023/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While various legal battles continue over the rights of transgender athletes, one thing is clear: Inclusive, privacy-centric locker rooms are a solution that benefits everyone.George B. Cunningham, Professor of Sport Management and Director, Laboratory for Diversity in Sport, Texas A&M UniversityErin E. Buzuvis, Director of the Center for Gender & Sexuality Studies, Professor of Law, Western New England UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/726352017-02-24T02:06:40Z2017-02-24T02:06:40ZThe transgender bathroom controversy: Four essential reads<p><em>Editor’s note: The following is a roundup of archival stories related to transgender issues in education.</em></p>
<p>On Feb. 22, President Donald Trump’s administration <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/us/politics/devos-sessions-transgender-students-rights.html">revoked protections allowing transgender students to use the bathrooms of their chosen gender identity</a>. The joint letter from the Justice Department and Education Department rescinds the May 2016 guidelines issued by former President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>This reversal further divides those who contend that <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/21/white-house-says-transgender-students-are-states-r/">these decisions should remain in the hands of individual states</a>, and those who believe that <a href="http://time.com/4330120/transgender-bathroom-equality/">gender identity should be federally protected as a civil right</a>. Also back in the spotlight: questions as to <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/transgender-students-protected-under-title-ix">whether transgender students are protected under the anti-discrimination provision of Title IX</a>.</p>
<p>We’ve spoken with scholars from multiple disciplines around the world, who have weighed in on the social, psychological and political issues impacting transgender students. Here’s what you need to know.</p>
<h2>Why the bathroom controversy?</h2>
<p>In 2014, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/transgender-students-protected-under-title-ix">issued a document</a> that, among other things, clarified the federal civil rights protections of transgender students:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Title IX’s sex discrimination prohibition extends to claims of discrimination based on gender identity or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity and OCR accepts such complaints for investigation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Why then, have school bathrooms become the center of the transgender civil rights movement?</p>
<p>The March 2016 “bathroom bill” in North Carolina played a big part. Banning people from using public bathrooms that don’t correspond to the biological sex listed on their birth certificates, the bill catapulted transgender rights into the national spotlight. Alison Gash, a professor of political science at the University of Oregon, breaks down <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-backlash-against-gender-neutral-bathrooms-all-about-57028">why there was such a backlash on both sides of the aisle</a>.</p>
<p>At the heart of the debate is a very real fear of violence. Gash explains <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-why-transgender-students-need-safe-bathrooms-50831">why transgender students need “safe” bathrooms</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Studies show that transgender students could be harassed, sexually assaulted or subjected to other physical violence when they are required to use a gendered bathroom. One survey… found that 68 percent of participants were subjected to homophobic slurs while trying to use the bathroom. Nine percent confronted physical violence.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And why are bathrooms separated by sex in the first place? To put the gender-neutral controversy in perspective, Terry S. Kogan of the University of Utah writes on <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-did-public-bathrooms-get-to-be-separated-by-sex-in-the-first-place-59575">the origins of gendered bathrooms</a>, a convention that came about as part of the now-discredited – and extremely sexist – “separate spheres” ideology of the early 1800s.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158317/original/image-20170224-23004-haug3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158317/original/image-20170224-23004-haug3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158317/original/image-20170224-23004-haug3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158317/original/image-20170224-23004-haug3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158317/original/image-20170224-23004-haug3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158317/original/image-20170224-23004-haug3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158317/original/image-20170224-23004-haug3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158317/original/image-20170224-23004-haug3r.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Annie Smith stands at the door of a gender neutral restroom at the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vt., Thursday, Aug. 23, 2007.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Toby Talbot/AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Trans-inclusive law</h2>
<p>While the debate still rages, there are plenty of reasons for hope. Genny Beemyn, Director of the Stonewall Center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst holds <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-trans-rights-nationwide-are-only-a-matter-of-time-59509">an optimistic view on the eventual legal protections of transgender people</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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>
</blockquote>
<p>Citing a natural demographic shift over time, Beemyn points out that prevalent, accepting attitudes among America’s youth will become the dominant opinion:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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, demographically, 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>
</blockquote>
<p>Meanwhile, we’ve learned that <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-anti-lgbt-laws-foster-a-culture-of-exclusion-that-harms-states-economic-prosperity-71123">anti-LGBT legislation can harm the economic welfare of America’s communities</a>. And governmental policy and mental health professionals agree that so-called “conversion” and “reparative” therapies can be <a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-conversion-and-reparative-therapies-for-youth-one-step-forward-40026">extremely damaging to LGBT youth</a>.</p>
<h2>Acknowledging America’s transgender youth</h2>
<p>At the heart of this conversation lies the question of whether children can truly understand gender identity at a young age. Vanessa LoBue, a professor of psychology at Rutgers University Newark, found that before the age of five, children are quite flexible in their ideas of gender, but that <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-do-children-develop-their-gender-identity-56480">by the age of 10 most children have incorporated gender into their concept of identity</a>.</p>
<p>Diane Ehrensaft, Director of Mental Health at the Child and Adolescent Gender Center, University of California, San Francisco, asserts that <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-trust-children-to-know-what-gender-they-are-until-they-go-against-the-norm-42093">there’s a double standard when it comes to accepting children’s ability to self-identify gender</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In traditional theories, it is assumed that children clearly know their own gender by the age of six, based on the sex assigned to them at birth, the early knowledge of that assignment, the gender socialization that helps a child know how their gender should be performed and the evolving cognitive understanding of the stability of their gender identity. Yet if a child deviates from the sex assigned to them at birth or rejects the rules of gender embedded in the socialization process, they are assumed to be too young to know their gender, suffering from either gender confusion or a gender disorder.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Despite these debates, there’s ample evidence that transgender students are very likely to be the victims of <a href="https://theconversation.com/bullying-linked-to-gender-and-sexuality-often-goes-unchecked-in-schools-55639">bullying</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/where-does-anti-lgbt-bias-come-from-and-how-does-it-translate-into-violence-61001">violence</a>. While researchers have identified some potential help in the form of <a href="https://theconversation.com/could-gay-straight-alliances-reduce-school-bullying-63174">gay-straight alliances</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/rethinking-how-we-represent-transgender-children-in-the-media-63722">media portrayals of transgender youths</a>, policy remains the most likely tool for effecting change.</p>
<p>David Miller, a doctoral student in psychology at Northwestern University, discussed <a href="https://theconversation.com/lgbt-equality-doesnt-exist-but-heres-how-to-fight-for-it-60977">the importance of educational policy in changing attitudes toward and extending protection for transgender students</a>. He referenced studies showing that policy and law can change not just the way people act, but the way people think as well.</p>
<h2>Transgender rights across the globe</h2>
<p>Trump’s reversal of the guidelines on bathroom use is the latest in an ongoing battle over civil rights for transgender individuals across the globe.</p>
<p>The World Health Organization has stated that <a href="https://theconversation.com/being-transgender-is-not-a-mental-illness-and-the-who-should-acknowledge-this-63182">it may no longer classify being transgender as a “disorder”</a> in the revised version of its International Classification of Diseases, due for release in 2018. Last year, the British government published a revised policy under which <a href="https://theconversation.com/british-prisons-must-now-recognise-gender-fluid-and-non-binary-inmates-63132">prisons must now recognize and respect inmates with fluid and nonbinary genders</a>. Also last year, the U.N. adopted <a href="https://theconversation.com/lgbti-vote-at-the-un-shows-battle-for-human-rights-is-far-from-won-62307">a landmark resolution on the “Protection Against Violence and Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity”</a> – though by a narrow margin.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72635/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Trump has reversed Obama’s landmark guidance allowing transgender students the bathroom of their choice. Here’s what you need to know about the controversy.Kaitlyn Chantry, EditorLicensed 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/595752016-05-27T02:03:54Z2016-05-27T02:03:54ZHow did public bathrooms get to be separated by sex in the first place?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124199/original/image-20160526-22083-chmiq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A 19th-century photograph of a women's restroom in a Pittsburgh factory. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For years, transgender rights activists have argued for their right to use the public restroom that aligns with their gender identity. In recent weeks, this campaign has come to a head. </p>
<p>In March, North Carolina <a href="https://templatelab.com/public-facilities-privacy-and-security-act/">enacted a law</a> requiring that people be allowed to use only the public restroom that corresponds to the sex on their birth certificates. Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/us/transgender-bathroom-obama-schools.html">the White House has taken an opposing position</a>, directing that transgender students be allowed to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. In response, on May 25, <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/25/479484932/11-states-sue-u-s-government-over-transgender-policies">11 states sued the Obama administration</a> to block the federal government from enforcing the directive. </p>
<p>Some argue that one solution to this impasse is to convert all public restrooms to unisex use, thereby eliminating the need to even consider a patron’s sex. This might strike some as bizarre or drastic. Many assume that separating restrooms based on a person’s biological sex is the “natural” way to determine who should and should not be permitted to use these public spaces.</p>
<p>In fact, laws in the U.S. did not even address the issue of separating public restrooms by sex until the end of the 19th century, when Massachusetts became the first state to enact such a statute. By 1920, over 40 states had adopted similar legislation requiring that public restrooms be separated by sex.</p>
<p>So why did states in the U.S. begin passing such laws? Were legislators merely recognizing natural anatomical differences between men and women? </p>
<p>I’ve studied the history of the legal and cultural norms that require the separation of public bathrooms by sex, and it’s clear that there was nothing so benign about the enactment of these laws. Rather, these laws were rooted in the so-called <a href="http://www.citeulike.org/user/tcb/article/3157197">“separate spheres ideology” of the early-19th century</a> – the idea that, in order to protect the virtue of women, they needed to stay in the home to take care of the children and household chores.</p>
<p>In modern times, such a view of women’s proper place would be readily dismissed as sexist. By highlighting the sexist origin of laws mandating sex-separation of public restrooms, I hope to provide grounds for at least reconsidering their continued existence.</p>
<h2>The rise of a new American ideology</h2>
<p>During America’s early history, the household was the center of economic production, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=BTUXAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=household+center+of+economic+production+early+america&source=bl&ots=9_dV36wnYh&sig=D7Aubi_7Kuy5QkIn0vBCTj2VHRQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPtviJwfjMAhVKID4KHQLlCQYQ6AEIPjAE#v=onepage&q&f=false">the place where goods were made and sold</a>. That role of the home in the American economy changed at the end of the 18th century during the Industrial Revolution. As manufacturing became centralized in factories, men left for these new workplaces, while women remained in the home. </p>
<p>Soon, an ideological divide between public and private space arose. The workplace and the public realm came to be considered the proper domain of men; the private realm of the home belonged to women. This divide lies at the heart of the separate spheres ideology.</p>
<p>The sentimental vision of the virtuous woman remaining in her homestead was a cultural myth that bore little resemblance to the evolving realities of the 19th century. From its outset, the century witnessed the emergence of women from the privacy of the home into the workplace and American civic life. For example, as early as 1822 when textile mills were founded in Lowell, Massachuetts, <a href="https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/industry/4.htm">young women began flocking to mill towns</a>. Soon, single women constituted the overwhelming majority of the textile workforce. Women would also become involved in social reform and suffrage movements that required them to work outside the home.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, American culture didn’t abandon the separate spheres ideology, and most moves by women outside the domestic sphere were viewed with suspicion and concern. By the middle of the century, scientists set their sights on reaffirming the ideology by <a href="http://www.icr.org/article/darwins-teaching-womens-inferiority/">undertaking research to prove that the female body was inherently weaker than the male body</a>.</p>
<p>Armed with such “scientific” facts (now understood as merely bolstering political views against the emergent women’s rights movement), legislators and other policymakers began enacting laws aimed at protecting “weaker” women in the workplace. Examples included laws that limited women’s work hours, laws that required a rest period for women during the work day or seats at their work stations, and laws that prohibited women from taking certain jobs and assignments considered dangerous.</p>
<p>Midcentury regulators also adopted architectural solutions to “protect” women who ventured outside the home. </p>
<p>Architects and other planners began to cordon off various public spaces for the exclusive use of women. For example, a separate ladies’ reading room – with furnishings that resembled those of a private home – became an accepted part of American public library design. And in the 1840s, American railroads began designating a “ladies’ car” for the exclusive use of women and their male escorts. By the end of the 19th century, women-only parlor spaces had been created in other establishments, including photography studios, hotels, banks and department stores.</p>
<h2>Sex-separated restrooms: putting women in their place?</h2>
<p>It was in this spirit that legislators enacted the first laws requiring that factory restrooms be separated by sex.</p>
<p>Well into the 1870s, toilet facilities in factories and other workplaces were overwhelmingly designed for one occupant, and were often located outside of buildings. These emptied into unsanitary cesspools and privy vaults generally located beneath or adjacent to the factory. The possibility of indoor, multi-occupant restrooms didn’t even arise until sanitation technology had developed to a stage where waste could be flushed into public sewer systems.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124204/original/image-20160526-22050-h9ipqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124204/original/image-20160526-22050-h9ipqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124204/original/image-20160526-22050-h9ipqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124204/original/image-20160526-22050-h9ipqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124204/original/image-20160526-22050-h9ipqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=988&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124204/original/image-20160526-22050-h9ipqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=988&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124204/original/image-20160526-22050-h9ipqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=988&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 19th-century ‘water closet.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/PSM_V34_D326_Late_19th_century_sanitary_water_closet_and_drainage.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But by the late-19th century, the factory “water closet” – as restrooms were then called – became a flashpoint for a range of cultural anxieties. </p>
<p>First, <a href="http://www.familytreemagazine.com/article/major-us-epidemics">deadly cholera epidemics</a> throughout the century had heightened concerns over public health. Soon, <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/archive/mdd/v05/i05/html/05ttl.html">reformers known as “sanitarians”</a> focused their attention on replacing the haphazard and unsanitary plumbing arrangements in homes and workplaces with technologically advanced public sewer systems. </p>
<p>Second, the rapid development of increasingly dangerous machinery in factories was viewed as a special threat to “weaker” female workers. </p>
<p>Finally, <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/3173022?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Victorian values</a> that stressed the importance of privacy and modesty were subjected to special challenge in factories, where women worked side by side with men, often sharing the same single-user restrooms.</p>
<p>It was the confluence of these anxieties that led legislators in Massachusetts and other states to enact the first laws requiring that factory restrooms be sex-separated. Despite the ubiquitious presence of women in the public realm, the spirit of the early century separate spheres ideology was clearly reflected in this legislation. </p>
<p>Understanding that “inherently weaker” women could not be forced back into the home, legislators opted instead to create a protective, home-like haven in the workplace for women by requiring separate restrooms, along with separate dressing rooms and resting rooms for women.</p>
<p>Thus the historical justifications for the first laws in the United States requiring that public restrooms be sex-separated were not based on some notion that men’s and women’s restrooms were “separate but equal” – a gender-neutral policy that simply reflected anatomical differences. </p>
<p>Rather, these laws were adopted as a way to further early 19th century moral ideology that dictated the appropriate role and place for women in society.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124213/original/image-20160526-22063-1j8czd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124213/original/image-20160526-22063-1j8czd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124213/original/image-20160526-22063-1j8czd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124213/original/image-20160526-22063-1j8czd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124213/original/image-20160526-22063-1j8czd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124213/original/image-20160526-22063-1j8czd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124213/original/image-20160526-22063-1j8czd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A women’s-only breakroom and bathroom at a paint factory in Cleveland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The future of public restrooms</h2>
<p>It is therefore surprising that this now discredited notion has been resurrected in the current debate over who can use which public restrooms. </p>
<p>Opponents of transgender rights <a href="https://www.campaignforhouston.com/">have employed the slogan</a> “No Men in Women’s Bathrooms,” which evokes visions of weak women being subject to attack by men if transgender women are allowed to “invade” the public bathroom. </p>
<p>In fact, the only solid evidence of any such attacks in public restrooms <a href="http://www.stevewessler.com/news/beating-of-woman-illustrates-restroom-safety-issues-for-transgender-people/">are those directed at transgendered individuals</a>, a significant percentage of whom report verbal and physical assault in such spaces. </p>
<p>In the midst of the current maelstrom over public restrooms, it is important to keep in mind that our current laws mandating that public restrooms be separated by sex evolved from the now-discredited separate spheres ideology. </p>
<p>Whether or not multi-occupancy, unisex restrooms are the best solution, our lawmakers and the public need to begin envisioning new configurations of public restroom spaces, ones far more friendly to all people who move through public spaces.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terry S. Kogan is on the advisory board of Equality Utah, an LGBT advocacy group.</span></em></p>It wasn’t even until the late 19th century that this was codified into law.Terry S. Kogan, Professor of Law, University of UtahLicensed 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.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/508312015-11-19T11:16:18Z2015-11-19T11:16:18ZExplainer: Why transgender students need ‘safe’ bathrooms<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116797/original/image-20160330-28483-1xb0cki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What's the fuss over gender-neutral bathrooms?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/denverjeffrey/6859753101">Jeffrey Beall</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The newest front line in the battle for LGBTQ safety and dignity involves bathroom access for the transgender community. The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/gavin-grimm-just-wanted-to-use-the-bathroom-he-didnt-think-the-nation-would-debate-it/2016/08/30/23fc9892-6a26-11e6-ba32-5a4bf5aad4fa_story.html">national spotlight</a> has turned to transgender individuals who are finding their ability to use public bathrooms <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/27/us/jackie-evancho-transgender-sister-bathroom.html">under investigation</a> – and sometimes attack – by school boards and state legislators.</p>
<p>But why has transgender bathroom use garnered such attention? And how will it impact transgender students?</p>
<p>My research shows how political and <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lsi.12233/abstract">legal battles</a> over LGBTQ rights can negatively impact the daily lives of LGBTQ individuals and families. Right now, transgender students are currently suffering significant setbacks at the local, state and federal level, limiting their access to public bathrooms and threatening their health and safety. </p>
<p>Here’s why.</p>
<h2>The current state of transgender bathroom rights</h2>
<p>On Feb. 22, President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/trump-administration-rolls-back-protections-for-transgender-students/2017/02/22/550a83b4-f913-11e6-bf01-d47f8cf9b643_story.html?utm_term=.7f64fc4b5f0c">rescinded</a> a key protection issued by former President Barack Obama. Obama’s <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201605-title-ix-transgender.pdf">2016 “dear colleague” letter</a> required schools that receive federal funding to accommodate a transgender student’s gender identity when granting access to bathrooms or other gender-specified facilities.</p>
<p>In her explanation of Trump’s directive, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos argued that although “protecting all students, <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/betsy-devos-protecting-lgbtq-students-should-be-key-priority-for-all-schools/">including LGBTQ students</a>” is “a key priority for the department,” the issue of transgender bathroom access is “best solved at the state and local levels.” </p>
<p>However, as the past year indicates, there are problems with leaving this critical civil rights issue up to state legislatures.</p>
<p>For instance, at least <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/-bathroom-bill-legislative-tracking635951130.aspx">10 states</a> are considering bills that would require individuals to use multi-stall public bathrooms that match their biological gender – and at least two impose criminal sanctions on any violation. </p>
<p>State bills like these would take precedence over local efforts to enact anti-discrimination policies. North Carolina, for example, passed one such state law last year: the now infamous <a href="http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2015E2/Bills/House/PDF/H2v4.pdf">HB2 bathroom bill</a>. The bill was introduced in direct response to a <a href="http://charlottenc.gov/NonDiscrimination/Pages/default.aspx">Charlotte City Council ordinance</a> outlawing discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Arkansas legislators prevailed on Feb. 23 in a similar battle with local officials over transgender bathroom rights. The <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/arkansas-supreme-court-strikes-lgbt-protections-fayetteville/">Arkansas Supreme Court overturned</a> a nondiscrimination ordinance <a href="http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2015/09/08/early-vote-favors-fayetteville-civil-rights-ordinance-68-32">passed by the city of Fayetteville</a>, ruling that one city cannot expand the state’s anti-discrimination protection to include gender identity.</p>
<p>In both of these cases, the state laws and city ordinances are in direct conflict, but the state takes precedence, making it illegal for transgender individuals to use the bathrooms matching their gender identity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159220/original/image-20170302-14714-1q6ogv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159220/original/image-20170302-14714-1q6ogv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159220/original/image-20170302-14714-1q6ogv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159220/original/image-20170302-14714-1q6ogv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159220/original/image-20170302-14714-1q6ogv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159220/original/image-20170302-14714-1q6ogv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159220/original/image-20170302-14714-1q6ogv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159220/original/image-20170302-14714-1q6ogv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gavin Grimm’s case is scheduled to appear before the Supreme Court in March. It’s unclear whether Trump’s reversal on the Obama administration’s guidance on transgender bathrooms will stall the case.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Steve Helber</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As is true in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2014/14-556">many</a> <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2012/12-307">cases</a> <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2002/02-102">involving</a> <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1995/94-1039">LGBTQ rights</a>, the Supreme Court may end up having the last word on the issue. The court is set to hear oral arguments in March for a case involving a <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/gloucester-county-school-board-v-g-g/">transgender boy’s fight for adequate access to restrooms in his high school</a>.</p>
<p>All told, only <a href="https://www.aclu.org/map/non-discrimination-laws-state-state-information-map">13 states (and the District of Columbia)</a> explicitly protect against gender identity discrimination in public schools. Without these statewide protections – and with local governments being overruled by state law – many transgender students living in the remaining 37 states cannot feel safe when using school bathrooms.</p>
<h2>Issues of physical, emotional safety</h2>
<p>So why do we need legal protection against bathroom restrictions?</p>
<p>The stakes are high for transgender students. </p>
<p>Studies show that transgender students could be harassed, sexually assaulted or subjected to other physical violence when required to use a gendered bathroom.</p>
<p>Recent studies suggest that over 50 percent of transgender individuals <a href="http://faculty.mu.edu.sa/public/uploads/1425310920.5389violence%20transgender.pdf">will experience sexual assault</a> in their lifetime (a rate that is far higher than for nontransgendered individuals), and that (absent protections) using bathrooms could pose a significant threat of physical harm or harassment. </p>
<p>One survey, commissioned by <a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/">UCLA’s Williams Institute</a>, found that <a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Herman-Gendered-Restrooms-and-Minority-Stress-June-2013.pdf#page=7">68 percent of participants</a> were subjected to homophobic slurs while trying to use the bathroom. <a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Herman-Gendered-Restrooms-and-Minority-Stress-June-2013.pdf#page=7">Nine percent</a> 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>Another study that surveyed transgender individuals in Washington, D.C. found that <a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Herman-Gendered-Restrooms-and-Minority-Stress-June-2013.pdf#page=7">70 percent</a> were either verbally threatened, physically assaulted or prevented in some way from using 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#page=2">26 percent of transgender students</a> in New York were denied access to their preferred bathrooms altogether.</p>
<p>The 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/news/local/seattle/uw-students-call-for-more-gender-neutral-restrooms_20160418093106605/140291974">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 redesign</h2>
<p>In response to demands from transgender advocates, parents and transgender students, administrators from California to Texas, in elementary schools and colleges, have considered the costs and benefits of redesigning bathrooms to accommodate transgender students.</p>
<p>For example, students at the <a href="http://pittnews.com/62434/news/beds-and-bathrooms-pitt-goes-gender-neutral/">University of Pittsburgh</a> can now use bathrooms that conform to their own gender identity. Arizona State University, Ohio State and Wesleyan University, among several others, <a href="http://www.houstonpress.com/arts/gender-neutral-bathrooms-are-opening-their-doors-in-houston-and-elsewhere-6392063">have instituted policies requiring all new construction to include gender-neutral bathrooms</a>. They are assessing how to modify the existing bathrooms to become gender-neutral or single-stall facilities.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102265/original/image-20151118-23204-bx0tjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102265/original/image-20151118-23204-bx0tjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102265/original/image-20151118-23204-bx0tjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102265/original/image-20151118-23204-bx0tjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102265/original/image-20151118-23204-bx0tjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102265/original/image-20151118-23204-bx0tjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102265/original/image-20151118-23204-bx0tjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Universities are bringing in policies to have gender-neutral bathrooms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/taedc/15799031740/in/photolist-q57aGY-jeZ6FB-7h4zDD-uDWfrH-e7hipR-mEwTCq-qLuCEj-qfxPeM-e7nVzj-NHLdq-dvcDVd-8q94PM-k6LNzB-e7nVXJ-ndU2MK-nb7xLz-k6CTQd-e7nWHU-uDWYbe-uDgBjy-un7BVA-un7YdY-upwMXE-5otHqH-gdKmK-4xfLxD-k6CBsd-k6CQY1-o4o72q-k6BfFz-63nebf-k6ATcT-77ZsTH-7mTVrd-nDmSCD-7cARDf-5ELJFo-5bWgco-8TNgHF-tGRLMK-icYznx-AxQW98-xv4Ymq-wEgLAS-uBi2JN-sTy3er-regVdu-qVBa4W-qgEiNw-rbhMhB">Ted Eytan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As increasing numbers of primary- and secondary-school-aged children are identifying as transgender, public schools have become “<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/07/the-k-12-binary/398060/">ground zero</a>” for fights over bathroom safety.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bathrooms-at-Miraloma-Elementary-in-S-F-go-6481544.php">Miraloma Elementary School</a>, in San Francisco, for instance, removed gendered signs from many of their bathrooms.</p>
<p>About two years ago, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law the <a href="http://www.cde.ca.gov/re/di/eo/faqs.asp">School Success and Opportunity Act</a>, requiring that all students be able to access bathrooms or locker rooms that are consistent with their own gender identity in California’s K-12 settings.</p>
<h2>Need for safety</h2>
<p>But these school or district-level efforts have been either limited to states with existing gender identity protections (like California) or have been overturned by school board or state action. </p>
<p>This is why Obama’s directive was so important. Regardless of where a student lived or attended school, it provided students with legal protection.</p>
<p>Without the directive, and despite DeVos’ assurances, bathroom options will be limited for many transgender students.</p>
<p>Either they have to travel quite a distance to get to the nearest single-stall gender-neutral bathroom, or just “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 and even suicide</a> could be among them. </p>
<p>One <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00918369.2016.1157998">study</a> of transgender individuals found that over 60 percent of participants who had experienced some form of bathroom exclusion had attempted suicide – a rate far higher than among respondents who had experienced no constraints on bathroom use.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159223/original/image-20170302-14695-we9oh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159223/original/image-20170302-14695-we9oh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159223/original/image-20170302-14695-we9oh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159223/original/image-20170302-14695-we9oh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159223/original/image-20170302-14695-we9oh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159223/original/image-20170302-14695-we9oh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159223/original/image-20170302-14695-we9oh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159223/original/image-20170302-14695-we9oh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Signage outside a restroom at 21c Museum Hotel in Durham, North Carolina, May 12, 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Importantly, the risks of physical and verbal assault – as well as the attendant risks of depression and suicidality – are present even when a transgender student uses the bathroom that matches his or her birth-assigned gender. </p>
<p>When students who, in every visible way, present as their identified gender are forced to use bathrooms that match their biological genders, reactions are strong. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/04/19/as-a-trans-man-i-never-felt-scared-or-unsafe-then-north-carolina-passed-its-discrimination-law/?utm_term=.c57e68dcdbc2">Payton McGarry</a>, a transgender male, describes being “screamed at, pushed, shoved or even slapped” when he used the women’s restroom after he began to develop male attributes.</p>
<p>This leaves transgender individuals with no real public bathroom option. As <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/what-its-like-to-use-a-public-bathroom-while-trans-20160331">Brynne Tannehill,</a> a transgender woman, describes, you could use “the women’s room and probably be OK and break the law.” Or “you walk into the men’s room… and you stay and that immediately marks you as transgender.” In this instance, argues Tannehill, following the law is far riskier. “Last year, we had 22 or 23 trans women murdered.”</p>
<p>As a result, sometimes transgender college 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><a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/transgender-hotline-reports-flood-calls-after-trump-walks-back-federal-n725796">Recent transgender hotline activity</a> suggests that Trump’s actions have provoked fear among transgendered individuals and their allies. As news spread of his new directive, hotlines were flooded with calls. For instance, in January, Trans Lifeline received on average 139 calls per day. On Feb. 23, the lifeline fielded 379 calls. The crisis hotline has also seen a marked increase in “high severity calls” – those indicating “immediate crisis” – since Trump’s inauguration.</p>
<p>Legal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are continuing their fight in court, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/north-carolina-gender-bathrooms-bill/">arguing</a> that these bathroom bills “push ugly and fundamentally untrue stereotypes that are based on fear and ignorance.”</p>
<p>For many, though, Trump’s decision to prioritize states’ rights means no bathroom options for trans students – especially in states that prohibit any local accommodation.</p>
<p>“Trans women are killed for using the men’s restroom, and they’re jailed for using the women’s restroom,” explains <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/04/28/transgender-bathroom-bills-discrimination/32594395/">Tyler Beebe</a>, a 27-year-old trans woman. “In the end, what choice do we have?”</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an article first published on Nov. 19, 2016.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50831/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>The bathroom has become a battleground for transgender rights — and rightfully so. Research shows that bathroom restrictions threaten the health and safety of the transgender community.Alison Gash, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.