Social Injustice Issue: Transgenders and Restrooms

In a world that is ever changing, social injustice can happen at any time. Some injustices have been happening for decades, and others seem to be new issues. One of the issues of social injustice that people are facing today are the many issues surrounding transgender people. Although transgender has been around for many years, the issues of their rights are relatively new. Now that society has become more accepting of the LGBTQ movement, or at least more aware, transgender individuals have been put into the spotlight.

With the rise in transgender issues, came the fight over school restrooms. Although this issue has been out of the limelight for some time, it is still an issue, especially in rural communities that do not have the facilities available. In the town I live in, we have still had issues, not with their right, but with the space. In essence, transgender students would like to use the restrooms of their chosen gender, not of their birth gender. While some others would at least like to have gender neutral bathrooms.

Policies Regarding Bathrooms

First and foremost, one of the problems lies not with the policies themselves really, but more with the wording and the use of “sex” instead of “gender”. Such as schools which receive Title XI funding have to abide by the rule:

A recipient may provide separate toilet, locker room, and shower facilities on the basis of sex, but such facilities provided for students of one sex shall be comparable to such facilities provided for students of the other sex (Watkins & Moreno, 2017, p.166).

This ruling leaves out transgender students, because it bases the rule on sex not gender. This leaves any future court rulings based on the interpretation of a judge as to his/her own interpretation or the interpretation of the school or agency involved (Phillips 2017). Herein lies some of the problems. Because it states sex, instead of gender, some states and school districts are fighting having to provide adequate facilities. This also lets the community members challenge these ideas because of how unclear the bill is to the gender or chosen gender of the students.

Affects on Community

I do feel that this debate over transgender bathrooms had a positive affect on our community. I think it has brought to light some issues that many people weren’t seeing in their lives. This is such a small community that I live in with only about 9,000 people in it. However, we do have transgender students, so this is an issue that needs to be addressed.

Advocating for Social Justice

As a worker in school, I was already advocating for this injustice. I work at a local at-risk school, which resides in one of the old school buildings in the community. This building being as old as it is, only has male and female bathrooms. Even the staff bathrooms are set up this way. There is no option for a unisex bathroom. We do not have locker rooms to worry about, at the same time there is no locker rooms for changing. This has to be done in the bathrooms.

Luckily, in our school, when a transgender student arrived, all of the other students were accepting of this. I spoke on behalf of the student before their arrival on how the students felt and the schools policy of letting the student chose. That student chose to use the bathroom of his birth gender, and all students were okay with this. However, I am sure this is different in bigger schools.

As a social worker, I will continue to be an advocate. If finances allow, schools should be putting in gender neutral bathrooms, I will continue to fight for this. I will continue to be involved in my community by going to the board meetings where they talk about these issues and ways to solve them. Being involved in community decisions is a good way for social workers to be pro-social, and keep up with many social injustices.

Conclusion

The rulings of school use of bathrooms by transgender students is not one that will be solved quickly. The feelings of many people are taken into account, and their interpretation of the laws and rules. Until a policy is set into place that is clearer between “sex” and “gender”, we will continue to face these challenges. 

References

1. Philips, R. R. (2017). The Battle Over Bathrooms: Schools, Courts, and Transgender Rights. Theory in Action, 10(4), 100–117. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.uwstout.edu/10.3798/tia.1937-0237.1729
2. Stern, M. J., Oehme, K., Stern, N., Urbach, E., Simonsen, E., & Garcia, A. (2018). The Judicial and Generational Dispute over Transgender Rights. Stanford Law & Policy Review, 29(1), 159–182. Retrieved from https://login.ezproxy.lib.uwstout.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=128368321&site=ehost-live&scope=site
3. Watkins, P. J., & Moreno, E. (2017). Bathrooms without Borders: Transgender Students Argue Separate is not Equal. Clearing House, 90(5/6), 166. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.uwstout.edu/10.1080/00098655.2017.1361285