Transgender Students – ��Ӱ��

S.D. Governor Hands Victory to Transgender Students, Vetoes Controversial Bathroom Bill

Mark Keierleber — Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Updated March 1: South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard vetoed legislation late Tuesday afternoon that would have created the first state law defining which bathrooms and locker rooms transgender students should be allowed to use. In making his decision, the governor said the bill did not address a pressing concern in South Dakota school districts and could spark lawsuits from civil rights activists.

“This bill would place every school district in the difficult position of following state law while knowing it openly invites federal litigation,” Daugaard . He also cited local autonomy, noting that school districts are already capable of making restroom accommodations that serve the best interest of their students, “regardless of biological sex or gender identity.”

Thank you for standing up for fairness !

— Equality Federation (@EqualityFed)

Background on South Dakota’s controversial legislation…

It’s decision time for Dennis Daugaard, the governor of South Dakota: Where should the state’s transgender students go to the bathroom?

The Republican governor is up against a hard to sign or veto a historic and highly controversial bill that will require students to use the school bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender at birth, as opposed to their gender identity. Students would be required to submit a request to school officials for a “reasonable accommodation” if they’re uncomfortable using facilities that correspond with their birth gender.

If the governor chooses not to act by end of day Tuesday, the legislation automatically becomes law.

“I have until Tuesday and I’ll get it done by Tuesday,” the Daugaard saying Thursday. “Certainly I want to do it as quickly as possible, but it’s more important to do it well.”

The bathroom rights of transgender people have been a contentious issue for years, and K-12 students have largely been at the center of the national debate. Save for a veto, South Dakota will become the first state with a law defining where transgender students are allowed to use the restroom. (Read ��Ӱ��’s recent series: A new push to protect transgender students in school)

Rep. Fred Deutsch, the South Dakota Republican who originally , told the New York Times he wrote the bill in order to “protect the innocence of children.” But Thomas Lewis, a high school senior in Sioux Falls, said the legislation “creates more stigma” around transgender issues. It also sends a foul message to transgender students, he said.

“You’re so different, in a bad way, that you need your own bathroom, your own locker room, your own shower situation,” Lewis said.

Ashley Joubert-Gaddis, the director of operations at the South Dakota advocacy group The Center for Equity, told USA Today the from legislators who are angry over last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage in all 50 states.

Having previously said that he had never met a transgender person, with transgender rights advocates last week who said they hoped to persuade him to use his veto authority. The opportunity, the governor said, “helped me see things through their eyes a little bit and understand their perspective.”

Daugaard’s experiences with transgender people don’t differ much from most Americans. In fact, 76 percent of Americans say they do not personally know anybody who identifies as transgender, according to from the Huffington Post and YouGov. Additionally, those polled narrowly opposed rules that would allow transgender people to use public restrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identities; 37% said transgender people should be allowed to use facilities that differ from their birth gender, while 38% said they should not be given access. Also revealing: One in four people surveyed said they weren’t sure.

(Related: One mother’s story of how school bullies and state laws changed the way she saw her transgender child)

Though South Dakota is the first to pass a bill defining transgender students’ bathroom access, they’re just one in considering similar rules. On the other side of the debate are 16 state legislatures — from Kansas to Pennsylvania — now considering bills to prevent discrimination based on both sexual orientation and gender identity. In 17 states, such laws already exist.

These new bills follow first-of-their-kind sanctions from the U.S. Department of Education, which reached a settlement last December with an Illinois school district over granting access to locker room facilities to a transgender student. In that case, the Education Department said the school district had violated Title IX, a federal law barring sex discrimination in education, when it denied the student, who identified as female, access to the girls’ locker room.

Last-Minute Deal With Feds Over IL Transgender Student’s Locker Room Access Divides Advocates

Mark Keierleber — Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Following first-of-its-kind sanctions from the U.S. Department of Education, an Illinois school district reached a settlement early Thursday that will grant a transgender student limited access to locker room facilities that correspond with her gender identity.

The is a big win for the high school student, who was born a boy but has identified as a girl for years, but several transgender rights advocates say the agreement falls short because it does not offer similar arrangements to all transgender students in the district.

As news of the settlement circulated Thursday, conflicting remarks from local and federal officials stirred confusion in the LGBT community. The official Department of Education statement about the settlement does not say whether this ruling applies to other transgender students in the district. Meanwhile the district’s superintendent has explicitly said that the agreement does not extend beyond this individual student.

In an interview Thursday with The Seventy Four, Nathan Smith, director of public policy at the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, said he had spoken earlier in the day with a senior official at the Department of Education, and had left that conversation convinced that the government intends to apply Thursday’s ruling more broadly to other kids. “We’re eager to see how it’s enforced over the coming months given the way it’s actually written,” Smith said.

Transgender student rights remain a hotly contested issue in the suburban Chicago community and across the country, despite the Department of Education’s hard line on inclusivity in recent years.

“We had hoped this agreement would be a model for other districts. It is not,” says John King, director of the LGBT and HIV Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which represented the unidentified student. “Our client had the personal resources and parental support to fight for equal treatment and locker room access. Not every student does.”

In a Nov. 2 ruling, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found Palatine Township High School District 211 violated federal law barring sex discrimination in education when it denied the student access to the girls’ locker room. Following an investigation spanning nearly two years, the ruling gave school officials one month to allow the student full access to her school’s locker room or put federal funding in jeopardy.

The student transitioned to living full-time as a young woman during her middle school years, presented a female appearance, legally changed her name, received a medical diagnosis and began treatment for gender dysphoria, and began hormone therapy. Although she is allowed to use the women’s restroom, and wear the women’s uniform during physical education class and sports, she was not given access to the women’s locker room when changing. Instead, she was instructed to use a separate restroom.

Under the agreement, the student will now be given access to locker room facilities designated for female students, but she will be required to shower and change behind a curtain. After accepting the settlement, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon commended the district for protecting the students’ civil rights while balancing other students’ privacy.

The district will also task a consultant with expertise in child and adolescent gender identity to help school officials implement the agreement. The district may put forward a current employee of the district to fill this role, but both the district and OCR must agree on the consultant. (More from The Seventy Four: How one California therapist trains schools to address transgender issues)

As reported by the Chicago Tribune, hundreds of area residents gathered in the cafeteria at Conant High School in Hoffman Estates, Ill. for a special school board meeting Wednesday evening organized to hold a vote on whether the district should settle. Most community members who chose to speak at the meeting said they opposed a settlement that would give the student access to the girls’ locker rooms. Some held signs that read “Settling is losing.”

Following the vote to settle, opponents shouted “shame on you” and “gutless cowards.”

District 211 Superintendent Daniel Cates has defended his policies on transgender students, underscoring that the district is committed to student privacy and noting that “gender is not the same as anatomy.” After announcing the settlement, which expressly denied the district violated federal law, Cates issued a statement that seemed more focused on the other women in the locker room: “Let me emphasize — consistent with our stated position throughout this matter, if the transgender student seeks access to the locker room, the student will not be granted unrestricted access and will utilize a private changing station whenever changing clothes or showering.”

This is the first time the Office for Civil Rights had found a school district in violation of civil rights laws over transgender issues — a year after the department said transgender students are protected from discrimination under Title IX. But it’s not the first time the department has made a hard stand on the issue. In October, the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice a friend of the court brief backing a Virginia teenager who is suing his high school over access to the boys’ restrooms.

In the last few years, advocates have swept state capitols and courtrooms in efforts to expand the rights of students who are transgender or gender nonconforming. Thirteen states and the District of Columbia now have laws banning discrimination against students on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender identity.

But these policies haven’t played out without pushback.

Across Illinois’ northern border in Wisconsin, for example, Republican lawmakers are currently working to push through — dubbed the “Student Privacy Protection Bill” — that would ensure K-12 transgender students are unable to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identities. That state has an anti-discrimination law that protects students on the basis of sexual orientation, but not gender identity. (Read The Seventy Four’s coverage of the shifting civil rights battleground surrounding transgender students’ rights.)

Although the Illinois case once again elevated the battle for expanded transgender student rights into the national spotlight, advocates offered varying degrees of optimism going forward.

King, of the ACLU of Illinois, said the district’s failure to extend similar protections for all transgender students in the district is “a terrible mistake.”

For Smith, of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, the settlement rings loud and clear: The Department of Education will stand by its stance that transgender students are protected from discrimination under federal law.

But Harper Jean Tobin, director of policy at the National Center for Transgender Equality, urged the Department of Education to issue further guidance to all schools across the country in understanding and supporting transgender students.

“Many people still have a limited understanding of this, and many have sincere but misguided concerns about providing equal opportunity for our transgender students,” Tobin said. “Providing equal access for all students consistent with their gender identity, while also providing more private options to everyone, makes sense and it works in schools across the country.”

After Caitlyn Jenner, a Push to Protect Transgender Students in School

Steve Snyder — Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000

This is one in a series of articles surveying the complexities of gender identity, the evolving political debate surrounding the transgender rights of today’s youth, and the ways in which these issues intersect with the policies and practices of K-12 schools across the country. To see the complete series, .

Long before Caitlyn Jenner’s cover shoot sparked a broader national discussion about gender, identity and the evolving state of transgender rights, the role of schools in assisting and protecting transgender youth was already emerging as a mainstream news story. For some parents, a series that aired earlier this year thrust the issues of parenting, teaching and protecting transgender children into a far brighter spotlight.

For many kids and teenagers, the issues of identification, self-expression and bullying arise everyday around school – in classrooms, bathrooms, school buses and playgrounds. The Seventy Four recently published a series of stories that examined the ways in which issues of gender identity and transgender rights intersect with the policies and practices of K-12 schools across the country. The first stories in this ongoing series are collected below (you can also find the latest entries here). We invite you to read the complete archive and, as always, share your views at info@the74million.org.

USWNT soccer player Abby Wambach (left) presents Caitlyn Jenner the Arthur Ashe Courage Award onstage during The 2015 ESPYS at Microsoft Theater on July 15, 2015 in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Getty Images)

The Politics: “After Caitlyn Jenner, a New World for Transgender Students – and a New Civil Rights Battleground”

The Seventy Four’s Naomi Nix reported on the ongoing push among LGBT activists to win state-level fights – in both courts and statehouses – to protect transgender students from discrimination. Read the full article here.

Without the possibility of an amendment written into federal education law, LGBT activists’ attention will likely remain focused on state legislatures.

Courtesy of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. (Current as of July 24, 2015)

Thirteen states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington) and the District of Columbia have passed laws banning discrimination against students on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender identity. Wisconsin has passed anti-discrimination legislation that protects students only on the basis of sexual orientation. But 36 states still have yet to address issue, and have not yet passed any nondiscrimination laws that apply specifically to LGBT students.

The Cook Family (Courtesy Terri Cook)

The Parents: “My Daughter, My Son – How School Bullies (and State Laws) Changed the Way I Saw My Transgender Child”

Terri Cook is a proud mother of a transgender child who transitioned at the age of 15 (she’s also written about the experience in the book), and she writes exclusively for The Seventy Four about what she witnessed when her teenager girl started identifying as a teenage boy. Read the full essay here.

I now hold my hand up and profess to the world that I was ignorant. Ignorance is not the same as intolerance. Ignorant is defined as “lacking knowledge, information, or awareness about something in particular.” Many good people simply have not been exposed to information and experiences different from their own. My husband and I had a lot of misconceptions about what it means to be transgender. Having never met or known a transgender person, and having had no reason to learn or understand, we remained ignorant.

The Educator: “One Therapists Mission to Train Schools, Parents and Classmates on Transgender Issues”

The Seventy Four’s Lizzie Thompson interviewed Susan Landon, a licensed marriage and family therapist, who has worked with transgender children and their families in Southern California for years. From individual and family counseling to advising with a transitioning student’s school, she has worked with high-schoolers, grade-schoolers and children who started identifying as young as 18 months. For kids who feel as if they cannot share their true self with the world, she’s their advocate – and their hero. .

Middle school can be harder because kids are entering a time of self identifying at that age and are being met with the challenges of puberty. It can be a more difficult period with classmates. When gender nonconforming children are hitting puberty and are not wanting secondary sexual characteristics to develop, they may become very anxious and depressed. They don’t want to develop and there is so much pressure at this age to “fit in”. This is a period of time when I first see a number of kids. Often at this time, medical intervention is a choice the family will make to block physical development, ease the anxiety and depression, and allow the child and family to determine their next steps. A lot of the older kids, kids who are 16, 17, or 18, don’t seem to be having as much trouble as they used to transitioning in school.

The Community: “Why Teachers Should Leave Transgender Specifics to Parents”

Some experts, like Susan Landon above, believe it’s imperative to deal with gender identification issues at younger ages, particularly when it comes to helping kids avoid bullying at schools. But not everyone thinks that issues as complicated as gender identity belong in the grade school environment. In an exclusive essay for The Seventy Four, Dr. Brian Russell makes the case that parents know best, about when their kids are ready to have a deeper conversation about transgenderism. Read the full essay here.

I prefer that schools not presume to know better than individual children's parents when to expose those children's minds to the concept of transgenderism — certainly with any degree of specificity. I encourage educators of preteens to teach their children that it's right to be decent, and wrong to be bullies to anyone. But specific lessons on transgender issues? That’s a parent’s call.

The Classroom: “New York Schools Issued New Transgender Guidelines By State”

The Seventy Four’s Mark Keierleber digs into New York’s guidelines just recently distributed to schools across the state concerning fostering safe and supportive school environments for transgender and gender nonconforming students. It’s a fascinating survey of how schools must find a way to translate state and federal laws and policies into daily classroom procedures. Read Mark’s full report here.

How should teachers refer to a student whose preferred gender differs from that listed on their birth certificate? Which bathroom should a transgender student use? What if they want to compete on a sports team? All these common issues are addressed thoroughly in the new state guidelines, which outline state and federal laws and aid educators in applying those laws at the classroom level. “All students need a safe and supportive school environment to progress academically and developmentally,” says the guidelines. “Administrators, faculty, staff and students each play an important part in creating and sustaining that environment.”

New stories and commentaries in this ongoing series can be found here. We invite you to share your thoughts, opinions and experiences at info@the74million.org.

New York Issues New School Guidelines in Bid to Protect Privacy of Transgender Students

Mark Keierleber — Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Pulling from the often painful experiences of transgender and gender nonconforming students, New York Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia recently to all school districts across the state, in a bid to assist educators in protecting students from harassment and discrimination due to gender identification.

According to the guidelines, which were distributed July 20 ahead of the new school year, students who identify as transgender “are those whose assigned birth sex does not match their internalized sense of their gender.” Gender nonconformity refers to a person whose gender expression differs from stereotypical expectations; they may identify as male, female, some combination of both, or neither.

“All students need a safe and supportive school environment to progress academically and developmentally,” says the guidelines. “Administrators, faculty, staff and students each play an important part in creating and sustaining that environment.”

Transgender and gender nonconforming students experience a higher rate of verbal harassment and are twice as likely to report feeling unsafe at school than the general population. According to a , 51 percent of transgender students who reported they were harassed or bullied in school said they had attempted to kill themselves — compared to 1.6 percent of the general population.

The guidelines come a month after the New York Civil Liberties Union released a report calling on the state Education Department to address the “illegal treatment” of transgender and gender nonconforming students in New York public schools.

The argued the state Education Department failed to provide schools with guidance in applying the Dignity for All Students Act to transgender youth — prompting school districts to create “insufficient, illegal and damaging” policies on their own. The Dignity for All Students Act, which took effect in 2010, aims to protect all public school students from discrimination and harassment.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent a June 28 letter to the state Education Department saying he was outraged it had not implemented or monitored Dignity for All Students Act provisions around gender identity, citing the NYCLU report.

State Education Department spokeswoman Jeanne Beattie said the department had been working with advocacy groups for several months to compile the guidelines. Here’s a short summary of what the department came up with:

The new guidelines begin with an overview of federal and state laws that protect transgender and gender nonconforming students from harassment and discrimination. Among those is Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded education programs.
Next is a handful of definitions, included to bring educators up to speed on the correct terminology for the discussion. Here are a few you might not know:
- Cisgender: A person whose gender identity corresponds to their assigned sex at birth.
- Sexual orientation: A person’s emotional and sexual attraction to other people based on the other person’s gender. This is not the same as gender identity — which refers to a person’s appearance or behavior.
- Transition: When a person aligns their gender expression to more closely fit with their gender identity and away from their assigned sex at birth. This can be social and physical.
Names and Pronouns: According to the New York guidelines, school officials should use the chosen name and pronouns consistent with a student’s gender identity.
Privacy, confidentiality and student records: The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the federal student privacy law, prohibits the release of a student’s education records. When a transgender student is new to a school, officials should keep confidential the student’s birth name. Additionally, educators should maintain two sets of records so a student’s birth name remains confidential.
Gender-based activities, rules, policies and practices: Citing the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice, prohibiting a student from using a restroom that matches their gender identity is a form of sex discrimination. “Unisex,” bathrooms or private changing rooms should be made available, but transgender students should not be required to use them.

Keeping Transgender Issues Out of Grade Schools: Why Teachers Should Leave Specifics to Parents

Brian Russell — Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000

These days, it would be practically impossible to shield children from every media reference to, or adult discussion of, transgenderism, but in my professional opinion, a preteen still shouldn’t be expected to understand, or even to contemplate, this topic on any but the most general of levels.

Transgenderism is a tricky topic for most adults to fully understand. Even among clinicians, there’s not universal concurrence that female brains sometimes actually develop in male bodies and vice versa. Clearly, some people are uncomfortable (clinically speaking, "dysphoric") about their genders, as defined by their chromosomes and expressed in their physiology, and feel that bodies of the opposite sexes would better suit their minds. But whether and when clinicians should then facilitate physical and/or mental changes to promote greater mind-body congruence, or should instead simply facilitate greater acceptance of incongruence, isn’t as clear.

Some maintain that in-depth discussion of transgender and gender identification issues with preteens and grade school students is warranted in order to prevent ignorance, alleviate fear, and avoid the resulting peer bullying of children whose mannerisms and/or interests may appear transgender. But I disagree. I believe it’s sufficient for parents and teachers to instruct their younger children that there are all kinds of people, dealing with all kinds of issues, some of which can make us feel confused and can even be unsettling at times, but that such feelings never make it okay for us to mistreat anyone.

I prefer that schools not presume to know better than parents when it’s time to expose grade-schoolers to certain issues

Others maintain that in-depth discussion of transgender issues with grades-schoolers is warranted in order to validate and normalize gender dysphoria in children who may experience it, but again, I disagree. I don’t believe that a preteen can – nor can parents, teachers, or even we clinicians – really know, whether he or she is truly gender dysphoric, let alone whether, in response to gender dysphoria, he or she truly wants to be change his or her body (or the presentation thereof).

I believe it’s premature to facilitate a still-developing child’s internal adoption, and/or external assumption, of a gender identity incongruent with his or her biology, and I think that doing so in knee-jerk response to the expression of a potentially-temporary desire or contra-stereotypical interests (e.g. a boy’s preference to play with dolls over racecars) runs an unacceptably-high risk of doing more long-term harm than good, both for that child and for other children in close proximity.

If that child’s school, for example, presumes to enlist his or her peers in accommodating or ameliorating his or her gender dysphoria, it forces the peers and their parents to address a tough topic at ages when it’s difficult to know whether it’s even warranted, let alone how to do it productively. For example, a peer who never had gender identity concerns prior may then start to wonder whether he or she, too, might be in the “wrong body” (even adult students learning about various conditions in nursing school, medical school, psychology graduate school, etc. sometimes worry about potentially being affected by those conditions).

Bottom line: I prefer that schools not presume to know better than individual children's parents when to expose those children's minds to the concept of transgenderism — certainly with any degree of specificity. I encourage educators of preteens to teach their children that it's right to be decent, and wrong to be bullies to anyone. But specific lessons on transgender issues? That’s a parent’s call.

Dr. Brian Russell is a psychologist, attorney, Co-Host of “Fatal Vows” on Investigation Discovery, and author of Stop Moaning, Start Owning: How Entitlement is Ruining America and How Personal Responsibility Can Fix It, coming Fall 2015 from HCI Books. Find Dr. Russell on Twitter @drbrianrussell and facebook.com/drbrianrussell.

Q&A: One Therapist’s Mission to Train Schools, Parents and Classmates on Transgender Issues

Lizzie Thompson — Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Susan Landon, a licensed marriage and family therapist, has worked with transgender children and their families in Southern California for years. From individual and family counseling to advising with a transitioning student’s school, she has worked with high-schoolers, grade- schoolers and children who started identifying as young as 18 months.

She recently spoke with The Seventy Four about her experiences assisting transgender students and their families, how she has seen attitudes change over the years, and how she believes education is vital to promoting a culture of acceptance.

T74: What behavior tends to make parents of younger children reach out to you?

Landon: The parents will typically contact me about behavior their children are exhibiting, like when they start making statements along the lines of: “I don’t want to dress like this,” “I don’t want to wear these kinds of clothes” or the children will say “I’m a girl” or “I’m a boy” or “I want to be a girl.” Their declarations can be pretty straightforward. Or they can just begin acting out gender non-conforming behavior in their lives.

When preschoolers and kindergarteners begin school one of the things that I stress when I go to their schools is that this is not something that is just coming off the top of the child’s head. Children from the time they are born are looking for what appeals to them, what they are attracted to, and what they identify with. They are gathering information about themselves before they are verbal so when they acquire language and are old enough to tell their parents, this is not new information for the child, only the parent. Often people are surprised at how young these declarations can start. One child I worked with started identifying at 18 months old, and said to his mother “I a boy.”

Gender identity is something these children are feeling inside and they are telling their parents and society that their identity does not match up with who they are being told they are. What we look for is behavior that is consistent, insistent and persistent. I mean persistent in the declaration of “This is who I am.”

Young children playing dress-up, like a boy dressing in a princess outfit, or a girl in a Super Man costume may just be wearing it because it appeals to them. It’s not necessarily a statement. But if they say “I want to wear this and I don’t want to wear those,” or, “I want to wear more of these clothes, and I want to go outside in them and I want to go to the store in them, it’s who I am,” that’s different. If you see this behavior consistently over time or if the behavior is causing stress in the child’s life, or if the child’s behavior is consistent, insistent, and persistent over a period of time, then it’s important to have a conversation with your child to see what this child is trying to tell you.

There are many older transgender people who would have loved the advantages of coming out when they were younger — but feared doing so

Sometimes this behavior is confusing and difficult for the parents. So they will try to divert the child or say “Well you can wear that in the house but not outside.” However, if the child continues saying “I don’t want to do that,” then it’s very important for the parents to pay attention. It seems to be easier now than it was 10 years ago for parents, when they see their child struggling, to come in and describe the behavior and anxiety their child is going through. This gives me the opportunity to educate and talk over possible options for their child.

I talk to them as I would talk to a school to educate the school. I explain to them what “gender diversity” means and that this is a process over time, that it is a journey for the whole family, and that every journey is unique. What many families ultimately decide is what’s called “socially transitioning,” and that’s the affirmative model for treating gender diverse children. It includes letting the child wear what they want to wear, call them the name they want to be called, call them the pronoun they want to be called, and let them expand into that identity, experience that, and see if that is true for them.

One of the most important things to remember about socially transitioning is that it is completely reversible. Nothing medically is happening. So when the child goes to school, particularly in the early years, in preschool, I tend to go talk to the teachers and administrators. I give about an hour in-service training about the history of transgender kids and adolescents and adults. I talk a little bit about (how) nature is diverse across the board and in our world and we celebrate it everywhere except for people. We are not quite as embracing when it comes to diversity with people. And yet we are as diverse as anything in nature.

And when I describe the differences, I am very clear in what I tell the teachers. I explain the difference between biological sex, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. They are all completely different things but are often conflated or overlapped. People often think that gender identity is the same as anatomical sex, which is what our culture has done for years and years. Our binary society says that the cluster of flesh between your legs determines the rules for the rest of your life about what you do, what you wear, and what kind of job you should have.

So I explain that gender identity is a feeling inside. It’s how we know who we are. It’s a feeling. It’s in the brain and it’s not determined by the sex you were assigned at birth.

How does your mission change when dealing with older children – middle-schoolers or high-schoolers?

When children are young, in preschool, social transitioning can be relatively simple. I suggest to the teachers that they just say, “This child wants to be called this (the chosen name), and we are going to call him or her this name and use the pronouns he/her that (child’s name) wants us to use,” and often, at this age, the children will just say OK. I also recommend a number of storybooks that the teacher can share with the class to help them understand about gender diversity.

The push back the school may experience is not generally from the other children but from their parents, particularly parents that are not educated about gender non-conforming children. We don’t see that much anymore, which is good, but historically parents often had a hard time when a child socially transitioned in their school. If a child transitions in the same school they have been attending is when this typically happens. Bathrooms can be a very big issue and sometimes parents don’t want their child to go to the bathroom with the socially transitioned child. However, If a child doesn’t transition in the same school – if they come out of kindergarten in one school and go to a different one where they don’t know anyone else – then the transition can be undisclosed. Under these circumstance the child can just attend school as their authentic self.

Here in the Los Angeles Unified School District, we have one of the best acceptance profiles in the country as far as I know. Children can be go to the bathroom that is congruent with their gender identity, they can use their chosen name and pronouns, be on the sports team, go to the locker room, all of which are congruent with their gender identity.

Unfortunately there are parents signing petitions to say an assigned boy is a boy and an assigned girl is a girl. The bathroom seems to be one of the biggest issues. I’m not sure but I’m guessing that the parents are afraid of some kind of exposure, which is the last thing a trans child would ever do. It may just feel wrong to them because it’s something they aren’t used to. The way a school tends to handle it now, if a parent comes and says to the principal “I don’t want my child going to the bathroom with that child,” then the school provides a separate bathroom, not for the trans-child, but for the other child. So the child of the upset parent will go to the nurse’s bathroom, while the transitioning child will go where they identify. It’s only isolating of the child whose parents don’t want them going to the bathroom with the transitioning child.

Other times, parents may be reluctant to have a play date with a transitioning child or hesitate to ask them to a birthday party because the behavior is confusing to them. If the parents of the student come and tell me about being left out or bullied, I give the child and the parents suggestions about how they might solve being left out and educate them about their legal rights in regards to bullying. The rights that they have in California are far different than a lot of other states.

Are the challenges different in middle school?

Middle school can be harder because kids are entering a time of self identifying at that age and are being met with the challenges of puberty. It can be a more difficult period with classmates. When gender non-conforming children are hitting puberty and are not wanting secondary sexual characteristics to develop, they may become very anxious and depressed. They don’t want to develop and there is so much pressure at this age to “fit in”. This is a period of time when I first see a number of kids. Often at this time, medical intervention is a choice the family will make to block physical development, ease the anxiety and depression, and allow the child and family to determine their next steps.

A lot of the older kids, kids who are 16, 17, or 18, don’t seem to be having as much trouble as they used to transitioning in school. Many teens, both gender non-conforming and cisgender are well educated because of all the recent media exposure and because of all the information on the internet. Transitioning teens tend to be very anxious about telling their friends but are often pleasantly surprised at the acceptance and support they receive. There may be a few kids who make mean statements or ask inappropriate questions but, more recently, their friends tend to be more accepting, which I’m delighted to say. High school tends to be a more flexible environment. Many of the kids, although they may not be transitioning, may be experimenting with their own identities, becoming more gender fluid or androgynous. As a result of more understanding, the children who have been more marginalized historically seem to have more acceptance today.

My granddaughter asked me to come speak to her psych class in Nashville. I talked to 100 kids and asked for feedback and a lot of them said, “I don’t completely agree but I appreciate the information,” while others said “Absolutely, everyone should have the right.” So there’s a lot more openness at the high school level and Tennessee is a relatively conservative state so that was a really promising event for me.

Counseling schools: When would you visit the school of a transitioning child, and what would you do there?

If a school knows that a transitioning child is going to be coming to their school, then often the school will call me. But more typically the parents and the child, particularly if they are older, will go themselves to the school and tell them what they need to feel safe and welcome and then the school will call me. I encourage students and families to go and advocate for themselves. I would want to find out what a school’s anti-bullying policy is, and what they would do in case bullying happens. My belief is that bullying is not to be tolerated at any level. It is extremely important that all children feel safe at school. That is a very important feature, particularly in the middle school years.

A number of children will transition during the summer time and then begin the next school year as the gender they identify. They may go to a different school where they want to be undisclosed. If they are at a different school and undisclosed, they may only tell a teacher for safety reasons, or they might not tell anyone. And they don’t have to. A student and their parents may feel confident they can take care of themselves.

Some of the older kids, if they are discovering themselves or declaring their gender identity as a junior or senior in high school, may decide to socially and physically transition in their high school because they want to enter college undisclosed. This requires not only socially transitioning but taking cross sex hormones so that their bodies will be congruent with their gender identity and with their peers. They want to have the opportunity to go to college as their authentic self and only disclose if that is their choice.

And what happens when a student starts the physical transition?

I talk to parents and schools about the different levels of development. What you typically see when they are 0-5, 5-9, 9-13, 14 and older. What are the developmental stages that kids go through during each of these periods of time.

For kids who start transitioning when they are younger, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 4th grade, when they move into puberty they have socially transitioned and are living as their authentic self but as they enter puberty, their secondary sexual characteristics are not going to align with their gender identity so puberty gets stopped with hormone blockers. This gives the child a period of time to be sure that the feelings they are having are concrete and congruent with how they identify. And if they decide to continue with the transition, they need to make the decision about what hormone they want. To maintain healthy bone development it’s necessary for the body to have either estrogen or testosterone in their system

So if a child identifies as a boy, and has been assigned female at birth, they may go on hormone blockers around 11 and then later on, when the family and the child feel comfortable and the doctor has determined that the child is physically ready, the child would go on cross sex hormones which means they go on the hormones that they identify with. So an identified boy would go on testosterone, and an identified girl would go on estrogen. Their bodies, except their genitals, would go through the puberty of the gender they identify with. Sometimes adolescents will make this change their last year of high school so that their body will change and they will feel more authentic as they move into college.

Let’s talk about younger children. What reaction do you see from parents who come to you with their toddler, and concerns about a gender crisis?

It’s hard for parents, especially parents with toddlers. They want their child to be happy and safe and to not to be bullied or feel left out. They have dreams for their child and these dreams are being challenged. When they think of their child being in these very uncomfortable situations, they really want this to just be a phase, especially for the youngest kids. With the really young children we primarily work with the parents. Affirmative therapy involves following the child, not pushing them or leading them but following them. By that I mean, let the child wear the clothes they want to wear, call them the name and use the pronouns they want to be called, let them play with the toys they want to play with, let them discover what fits for them. Does this cause anxiety for the parents. Yes, it often does, but I would rather have a happy child with anxious parents than an unhappy and depressed child.

But again, the thing to remember, all the way through this journey: social transitioning is reversible as are hormone blockers (when puberty is suppressed, a child does not masculinize or feminize). If a child decides not to transition into adolescence, no permanent decisions have been made. Only in adolescence when cross sex hormones are introduced are there permanent changes to the body. These decisions can be especially hard for the kids who are gender fluid (children who identify as both female and male or neither female nor male) They have to choose one hormone or the other. There is no combination of hormones.

How have you seen public attitudes shift over the years, and how can we continue to move forward with acceptance?

I would say when the term “transgender” became more public, attitudes started to change. There were television episodes, there were many more articles, there have been kids on talk shows. I would say the in the last four or five years, it’s moved more and more rapidly to a place where people are more educated about gender identity. At least today, most people know what transgender means.

There are many older trans people who would have loved to have had the advantages of coming out when they were younger but feared doing so. Our culture has been defined as a binary society for a very long time. If it is clear to a child at an early age that their gender identity will be severely disapproved of by their parents and society, then that child will start adjusting and try very hard to be what they are told they are supposed to be. They will try hard to fit it. Often this older generation lived in a state of conflict for much of their lives. If children are disapproved of but want approval from society and their families, they will try hard to please. Behavior may be able to be changed but their identity can’t be changed and may present the child with a lifetime of challenges. This is what has happened to so many adults who didn’t have the advantages these younger kids have.

One of the main and most important reasons for education in our schools and for society in general is to attempt to save the children that are not accepted in their families, in their spiritual communities, in their schools, or in their communities. The majority of the parents who come to see me are looking for help to understand what gender diversity means and to understand their child.

Because I’ll tell you what the main opposition seems to be, in my opinion: Opposition comes from not knowing. Not being educated. What transgender is, what it’s about, how long it’s been in our culture – which is forever. I think education should be in the classroom and on the news. Being transgender is here. It’s happening and I want people to understand. I want them to have the right information; I don’t want them to have the wrong information. All people deserve to have a safe and welcoming environment in which to live and it is my dream that our world will provide that for everyone.

Like when I went to Tennessee and one child wrote to me and said “It’s very hard for me to incorporate this in my own life and belief system but I appreciate that you educated me.” Another one said, “Thank you for this. I had no idea and I’m totally accepting and everyone should be who they want to be.” It just needs to be out there so people know what we’re talking about.

Share your reaction to this story, or your own experience, at info@The74Million.org.

My Daughter, My Son: How School Bullies and State Laws Changed the Way I Saw My Transgender Child

Terri Cook — Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000

For the first 45 years of my life, I never thought about gender.

Gender was something I took for granted because I was comfortable expressing my gender and fulfilling my gender roles (as expected by society and those around me). All that has changed now that I’ve seen how my son, and others like him, must think about gender all the time.

Let me explain. I’m the proud mom of two young men, but I didn’t always know I had two sons. For 15 years, my husband and I believed we were raising a daughter. Our younger child, who we now know is our son, is transgender.

Over the years I’ve been criticized and asked countless questions about my teenager, such as, “How could a child possibly know who they are or what they want at that age?” and “What kind of parent would allow their child to make irreversible changes to their body with hormones and surgery?”

I get that. I had those questions too. And a whole lot of others.

If you asked me several years ago what it means to be “transgender,” I couldn’t have provided a good answer. I had no concept of the struggles and pain he and our family would face. I’ve learned a lot over the years, and what I’ve learned has completely changed me. My husband and I have documented our journey in the book, .

Terri Cook with her husband Vince. (Photos courtesy Terri Cook)

When my son was growing up (and when we still thought he was our daughter) he was happy, healthy, and full of life. He was never a fan of dresses or dolls or stereotypical “girl things” but that didn’t matter to us. He’d wear t-shirts and jeans and was free to participate in the activities that interested him. He preferred to wear his big brother’s hand-me-downs and politely tossed aside the adorable dresses, bows, and “all things pink” that I preferred.

In 4th grade, the moms of some of his friends asked what we were doing as parents to raise a daughter with such high self-esteem that she didn’t get caught up in “girl drama,” didn’t care about wearing makeup, buying clothes, or trying to fit in with the popular girls. We often wondered the same thing, but never dreamed that he wasn’t caught up in “girl drama” because he wasn’t a girl.

Our son was a straight-A student, a social butterfly, and involved in scouts, sports, student council, and countless clubs and activities. We were proud and grateful to have a happy, healthy, loving, and successful child.

But in adolescence everything changed.

He was 11 or 12, at the onset of puberty and middle school, when the depression, anxiety, and social isolation began. Each day became more and more of a struggle. Although I saw the changes, I had no idea how much pain he was in and the internal (and external) battles he faced every day.

The Cook Family

By middle school he no longer fit in. He didn’t look, dress, or carry himself like his peers expected him to as a girl, and so he was relentlessly teased and bullied. Kids asked if he was a boy or a girl, knocked him down in the hallways, laughed at him, called him “a freak” and “a loser” and told him he’d be better off dead. He never let us know how bad it was, and it was years later before we learned the horrific details of all the awful things that were said and done to him.

I’ll never forget the night when I found him, covered in blood. He had given up all hope and didn’t believe his life could ever get better. He wanted to end his life and end the pain. My beautiful child attempted suicide. His struggle to understand, accept, and simply be who he is, nearly cost him his life.

The challenge for my son, and all transgender people, is not just being born in a body that doesn’t match who they know themselves to be. The challenge is compounded by how they are perceived and treated in society for being who they are. 41% of transgender people attempt suicide (as compared to 1.6% of the general population.) That frightening number skyrockets to 51% if the person is subjected to bullying or harassment, and to 61% if they are the victim of physical assault. (Check out The Seventy Four's Flashcard on confronting bullying in schools.)

For my son and many other transgender youth, it’s not just about being bullied at school – it’s about not being able to conceive of a future where they can be accepted, safe, equal members of society.

Our son continued to withdraw, yet we still didn’t know or understand that he was transgender. He didn’t just wake up one morning and profess he was a boy, not a girl. Rather, he endured depression, anxiety, bullying, and torment for nearly two more years before any of us understood that his gender identity was the source of his pain.

We were desperate to understand why our child was struggling and so unhappy. We sought the help of many professionals – doctors, therapists, a psychiatrist who prescribed anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication, teachers, school counselors and other educators. None of these professionals ever said, “Hey, do you think you may be a boy and not a girl?” We just didn’t know it was possible for our child to have a male brain inside a female body. Many of the professionals we worked with didn’t know either, or they had some awareness but not enough experience to recognize the signs.

I now hold my hand up and profess to the world that I was ignorant. Ignorance is not the same as intolerance. Ignorant is defined as “lacking knowledge, information, or awareness about something in particular.” Many good people simply have not been exposed to information and experiences different from their own. My husband and I had a lot of misconceptions about what it means to be transgender. Having never met or known a transgender person, and having had no reason to learn or understand, we remained ignorant.

These days we see, hear and read more than ever about transgender people. Yet society has a long way to go. Most of us still do not talk about or learn about gender. Many often conflate gender with sex or sexual orientation.

Our son came out to us gradually over time. First he told us he was a lesbian. He was getting comfortable and testing our reaction—to see if it was safe. Would we accept it and him? Would we still love him? But he was also figuring it out and coming to terms with it himself. It was many months later before he came out to us as transgender—that he was really a boy, despite being assigned female at birth.

He was finally able to put words to the struggle going on inside him. He learned what it means to be transgender, and although he resisted for a while, he knew that that’s what he is. He is a boy who was born with a body that society (and his parents) always told him is the body of a girl.

He was relieved to finally have a word to describe himself; however, he wasn’t relieved or happy to be transgender. This was NOT something that he wanted or chose—nobody would choose such a difficult path in life. He fought it and tried desperately to live as a girl, to fit in, to not be different. He tried to be someone that he wasn’t and it nearly killed him.

Terri and her son

My husband and I started out as many parents do, full of fear and ignorance. I was uncomfortable. At first I didn’t want this for my son’s life or my own. I wondered who would love my child the way he deserved to be loved. I was worried about what family, friends, colleagues and even strangers would say. I didn’t know how to explain what was happening or how to effectively advocate for my child. I felt alone, afraid and overwhelmed.

Later, as I learned more about the violence, rejection, suicide, depression and discrimination faced by transgender people, I became even more afraid.

However, despite our fear and discomfort, my husband and I committed to learning what we needed to learn and to finding support and resources. We love our child unconditionally, and we needed to learn how to best support him, save his life, and give him hope for a better future.

Saving My Son

My husband and I are engineers—the fact-finding, list-making, “show me the research and the science” kind of engineers who need to delve deep, analyze the pros and cons, and seek out experts in the field.

While we immersed ourselves in the research, and sought professionals experienced treating transgender youth, we allowed our son to begin living as a boy in our home. This was a social transition, not medical, and completely reversible. He got a short haircut and a “male” wardrobe and we began using male pronouns and the new male name he had chosen for himself. We thought this was a simple gesture that would allow him to be more comfortable while we educated ourselves. Little did we realize that this experience would teach us our greatest lesson, and that his life depended on it.

As we allowed our son to live as a boy, and be affirmed and treated as who he knew himself to be, we watched him start to live again. We saw the light come back into his eyes and the depression begin to lift. He began to stand up straighter and look us in the eye again. His smile returned. He started to laugh and interact with his family again. He didn’t hide in his room anymore.

Rejecting or suppressing a transgender child’s true identity robs them of their childhood and adds tremendously to the burden of transition later in life. I know this with absolute certainty. I am confident that anyone who lived through, observed, and learned what I’ve learned would come to the same conclusion. We hope our story can help others learn too, because that will save and change thousands of lives.

For years my life revolved around helping my son finally be able to live as the young man he always knew himself to be. It was a long and difficult process. There was bullying and rejection and discrimination along the way. We moved to another city, changed schools multiple times, and had to educate countless people — including healthcare workers, educators, and court officials.

As parents, we succeeded.

My son is now happy and healthy. He’s a full-time college student, has a steady job where he was promoted to manager, is in a wonderful relationship, and is living his life fully as the young man I now know he has always been.

But my focus has changed now.

I no longer want to change my son so that society sees him as a man and accepts him. Instead, I want to change society and our laws so that he (and all transgender people) can be seen for the remarkable human beings they are.

Today, I am a full-time advocate for change. I have two sons. Both are college students. Both are hardworking, loving, kind, thoughtful, and giving. Yet my two sons are not treated equally under the law in our state. One of my sons is protected from discrimination and violence, while the other is not. So I advocate not only for my child, but for the entire transgender community, demanding access to healthcare, education, economic security, and the freedom to move about this world without fear of state-sanctioned discrimination and violence. More than that, I advocate for dignity, respect, justice, compassion and love that all people should be entitled to.

Being the parent of a transgender child has changed my life. It has changed how I see all people, not just transgender or gender non-conforming people. It has opened my eyes to how much I really don't know about somebody else's life, identity, or experiences. It has made me a more compassionate person who recognizes and respects that my own experiences and identity may not be the same as others’. I am now less judgmental and more open to a new understanding. I try to catch myself whenever I fall into the trap of measuring against society’s norms.

I’m not perfect but everyday I strive to be the kind of person that I hope my children encounter throughout their lives.

Share your reaction to this story, or your own experience, at info@The74Million.org. If someone you love is battling depression or suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

Terri Cook is the proud mom of a transgender child who transitioned at the age of 15 and the co-author of the book . She speaks at conferences, corporations, colleges and community organizations across the country and is dedicated to opening hearts and minds by sharing her family’s life-changing journey. She also serves on the board of the Empire State Pride Agenda Foundation. Formerly a project engineer, Terri spent most of her career at Lockheed Martin where she was also a Pride ERG Lead and diversity trainer.

After Caitlyn Jenner, a New World for Transgender Students — and a New Civil Rights Battleground

Naomi Nix — Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Gavin Grimm doesn’t need any more memories of his body’s betrayal.

In elementary school, his best friend told him that they could no longer hang out because he was born a girl. By 11 or 12, he realized he liked girls but didn’t think he was a lesbian; Grimm can still recall the grief he felt when his 15th birthday cake had a girl’s name on it.

His mother wiped it off and wrote Gavin.

“I don’t want to have to deal with every birthday being a reminder that I was born with this reality — and that parts of that reality will never change,” the Virginia High School student wrote in an essay for Refinery29, an online magazine.

The reminders came anyway.

Last fall, administrators at Gloucester High School decided they would allow Grimm to use the school’s male bathrooms. But a few weeks later, the county school board reversed the decision, voting instead that transgender students must use the bathroom assigned to their sex or a single-stall restroom.

The American Civil Liberties Union has since filed a complaint against the Gloucester County School Board, alleging the measure discriminates against transgender students.

Gavin Grimm (Photo: Courtesy American Civil Liberties Union)

Caitlyn Jenner thrust transgender issues into the national spotlight in a high profile way earlier this year when she sat down with Diane Sawyer to discuss her journey transitioning from the male Olympic athlete that once captivated America to the woman she felt was her true self. And Jenner purposefully steered that conversation toward young people in similar situations in her July 15 acceptance speech of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2015 ESPYS.

Transgender youth are “learning that they’re different, and they’re trying to figure out how to handle that on top of every other problem a teenager has. They’re getting bullied, they’re getting beaten up, they’re getting murdered, and they’re committing suicide,” Jenner said.

An amendment aimed at ease bullying and discrimination faced by LGBT youth was just in the latest proposed rewrite of the No Child Left Behind law.

A civil rights campaign turns to the states

But in recent years, LGBT advocates have waged aggressive campaigns—sometimes successfully — in state legislatures and the courts to expand the rights of transgender students, allowing them to use the bathrooms or join sports teams of their preferred gender.

Their efforts have not caught up to other similar movements, such as the campaign for marriage equality — where pro-public sentiment overtook political objections, ending with legalization nationwide by the U.S. Supreme Court last month. But activists say they see a new opening with growing public awareness and support from President Barack Obama’s administration.

“I’m hopeful. There are glimmers of hope throughout the process,” said Nathan Smith, director of policy for the New York-based “There’s a long game to it.”

A found only six percent had not heard about Caitlyn Jenner’s transition; While 14 percent said that identifying as a gender other than the one you were assigned at birth was morally acceptable. Another 39 percent said it wasn’t a moral issue.

By contrast, found that almost 60 percent of Americans did not support the idea of transgender students picking which bathroom or locker room to use while 26 percent said they should be allowed to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their preferred gender.

The defeated Senate amendment would have allowed LGBT students to sue their school districts if they failed to protect them or didn’t recognize their rights.

“Surely we can agree that a minority group of students who have long endured bullying and harassment and discrimination deserve the same protections we afford other groups of students,” said Patty Murray, the education committee’s top Democrat.

The measures were supported by a coalition of LGBT and civil rights groups but faced pushback by lawmakers who argued that it was an issue that should be left to local school districts.

Local school boards and universities have already faced allegations of discrimination against transgender students with mixed results. Earlier this year, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by a former transgender male student at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, who was reportedly expelled after he refused to use a unisex locker room instead of the men’s locker room. The judge argued his transgender status was not protected under Title IX, the federal amendment which outlawed sex discrimination at schools and universities.

Last year, a federal appeals court ruled that a family can sue a Texas school after their 13-year-old boy hung himself following months of bullying. was reportedly subjected to homophobic slurs and stripped to his underwear, abuse the judge ruled could be considered sexual harassment even though Carmichael’s tormentors were male.

In Grimm’s case, the U.S. Justice department weighed in saying the decision of the Gloucester County School Board should be considered sex discrimination under Title IX.

“The plain language of the statute thus affirms Title IX protects all persons, including transgender students, from sex discrimination,” Virginia Assistant U. S. Attorney Clare Wuerker wrote in a statement of interest.

The comments echo the interpretation of Title IX the U. S. Department of Education 2014. But the statement prompted LGBT groups to ask the department to clarify that the legislation also requires that schools allow transgender students to participate in school activities and adhere to dress codes based on their gender identity. LGBT advocates also want teachers and administrators, who may know a student has transitioned while fellow students do not, to respect transgender students’ privacy by using the names and pronouns that reflect their gender identity.

Without the possibility of an amendment written into federal education law, LGBT activists’ attention will likely remain focused on state legislatures.

Courtesy of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. (Current as of July 24, 2015)

“In the absence of specific federal law, state law becomes even more relevant,” said Erin Buzuvis, a law professor at Western New England University who focuses on Title IX issues. “The next best thing is a state-by-state approach.”

In 2013, California Governor Jerry Brown which gave students the explicit right to participate in "sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity.” Earlier this month, the New York state education department for school districts about how to foster safe environments for transgender and gender nonconforming students.

The California law—the first of its kind in the country—went a step beyond the state’s previous non-discrimination legislation but did face criticism from a conservative legal group.

“LGBT activists are sacrificing the safety and sanity of our schools to push an extreme political agenda. This battle is no longer confined to California or Colorado; it is spreading to every part of the nation,” Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, said in . “It is crucial that we act now to prevent a crippling blow to our constitutional freedoms.”

Dacus said the privacy and free speech rights of other students, who might not feel comfortable sharing a bathroom with a biological member of the opposite sex, were being trampled.

In some states that have yet to pass laws, the political stalemate over gender identity and discrimination might be on the verge of collapsing. A measure has been proposed every year for the past decade in the Pennsylvania legislature but never made it out of committee for a vote, according to Levana Layendecker, the communications director for Equality PA, an LGBT advocacy organization.

But this year could be different. In a budget address earlier this year, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf called for laws that would protect people from being discriminated against based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

“Last year we got marriage equality and people didn’t think that would happen,” Layendecker said. “It does seem like we are in a different world.”

Caitlyn Jenner photo by Getty Images

Transgender Students – ����Ӱ��

S.D. Governor Hands Victory to Transgender Students, Vetoes Controversial Bathroom Bill

Last-Minute Deal With Feds Over IL Transgender Student’s Locker Room Access Divides Advocates

After Caitlyn Jenner, a Push to Protect Transgender Students in School

New York Issues New School Guidelines in Bid to Protect Privacy of Transgender Students

Keeping Transgender Issues Out of Grade Schools: Why Teachers Should Leave Specifics to Parents

Q&A: One Therapist’s Mission to Train Schools, Parents and Classmates on Transgender Issues

My Daughter, My Son: How School Bullies and State Laws Changed the Way I Saw My Transgender Child

After Caitlyn Jenner, a New World for Transgender Students — and a New Civil Rights Battleground

Transgender Students – ��Ӱ��