Another Victory In Times Of Hate

One school district just guaranteed that we will be treated according to our gender identity. Down in Maryland they are moving ahead implementing their non-discrimination laws.

Transgender students prevail with school policy in Maryland
The Washington Post
By Donna St. George
October 8, 2017

When James van Kuilenburg used the bathroom at his Maryland high school, he always worried. Would he be taunted by his classmates? Would he be shamed or beaten? Most of the time, he avoided the risk altogether.

“You don’t feel safe,” the teenager said, five years after coming out as transgender.

But van Kuilenburg and others in Frederick County hope this year marks a turning point across the Maryland system’s 67 schools as a new policy takes hold that is regarded as one of the most progressive in the state.

The policy spells out that bathrooms and locker rooms should be used according to gender identity and provides alternatives for students uncomfortable for any reason. It also covers privacy, preferred names, dress codes for major events and participation in sports teams.

“I see it as one of the most comprehensive transgender student policies in the country,” said Jabari Lyles, executive director of GLSEN Maryland, which advocates for LGBT students on issues of education.

They still have a ways to go to catch up to Connecticut.

Of course there is opposition…

But critics have spoken out, too. A suit was recently filed on behalf of a mother and her 15-year-old daughter, asserting the girl’s rights to bodily privacy and saying the teen fears for her safety and feels humiliated to undress in front of “the opposite sex.” The family’s attorney, Dan Cox, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for Congress last year, declined to comment on the suit, which at points invokes totalitarian regimes and Nazi death camps.

Who wants to undress in font of others? I don’t think no one does and that is way schools are installing curtains or using shower stalls.

One big open locker room or shower room is a thing from the 50s. Even back in the early seventies when I went to college they had individual shower stalls.

“One of our problems with this policy is it appears to be concerned only with the rights and affirmations of transgender students,” said Cindy Rose, speaking for the Republican Women of Frederick County. “Will there be a policy protecting the band geek, the math nerd and the other children who have felt unwelcome and bullied for decades? Will they get a similar carve-out?”

What an a… well you know what I mean.

For one thing there is a law about bullying and two we don’t want and special rights we just want our rights just like everyone else.