Posted on 06/17/2013 5:48:34 AM PDT by servo1969
Maine’s highest court will soon decide which restroom Nicole Maines, a 15-year-old transgendered student, should use.
Last week the state supreme court heard oral arguments about whether a school district violated her civil rights when it forbid her from using the girl’s restroom. She was in fifth grade at the time.
Maines is biologically male but has identified as female since she was very young. As such, she wished to use the girl’s restroom. State law, however, mandates that boys and girls use separate facilities. Her school told her to use the staff restroom instead.
These requirements violate the Maine Human Rights Act, which bars gender discrimination in schools, claim the Maines family and their supporters, including the Maine Human Rights Commission and various LGBT groups.
“At the core of this case is whether the promise of equal educational opportunities for transgender students is realized,” said Jennifer Levi, director of the Transgender Rights Project for the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, in a statement.
Maines said that she felt singled out and embarrassed because of the restroom policy.
“I hope they understood how important it is for students to be able to go to school and get an education and have fun and make friends, and not have to worry about being bullied by students or administration, and be accepted for who they are,” she said in a statement.
Maines enjoys the full support of her family, including her twin brother, who is not transgendered.
Her father was hopeful that the court would side with them.
“It has been extremely difficult, but I’m pleased to be here and to have our case heard, and I’m very hopeful for a good outcome,” said Wayne Maines in a statement.
The state supreme court is the next step for the Maines family, who lost in superior court earlier this year. The court sided with district administrators, who maintain that they are only upholding state law. To properly resolve the restroom issue for trangendered students, legislative action is required, they argued.
Reconciling transgendered students with school policies has become a thorny issue as of late. The family of a transgendered first-grader in Colorado is also suing the school district over restroom usage.
Fine.
Let’s stop putting MEN, WOMEN, BOYS and GIRLS on restroom doors because apparently we’ve raised a generation of people for whom that’s too vague.
How about a door that says “PENISES” and a door that says “VAGINAS”?
Would that be clear enough?
#15
They are twin brothers.
[“I hope they understood how important it is for students to be able to go to school and get an education and have fun and make friends, and not have to worry about being bullied by students or administration, and be accepted for who they are,” she said in a statement.]
We were hoping that after attending school for quite some years, you would be smart enough to know the difference between a penis and a vagina.
I guess the schools really are failing their students.
Once again
it’s not that hard
those with hoses use the mens’
those with no hose use the ladies’
there, does that solve it?
Unless he has had the operation he is not transgendered, just a wannabe.
I dont think that is clear enough- you need one that says
“XX Chromosomes” and “XY Chromosomes”
Until we all go for the new trendy unisex bathrooms that are all the rage- so your teenage daughtgers can be in the same bathrooms as high-school boys!
Won’t that be fun?
No such thing as transgendered, so the question is invalid.
Your post makes perfect sense. I have a very hard time with this “identifies as a female” concept. What does it meant to “identify” as a particular gender? You have the parts you have. If “identify” has something to do with who you are attracted to, we have terms for that: heterosexual and homosexual. Since we are not supposed to have any preconceptions about how a boy or a girl are “supposed” to act, I don’t see how this concept of “identifying” as one gender or the other works.
Can anyone help me? I don’t think I am as stupid as this issue makes me feel.
The one at home.
The ones in a loony bin.
I'm still confused.
It’s really pretty simple: If you have a penis, uses the restrooms for males. If you have a vagina, use the one for females.
People used to be a lot smarter.
what Dr Suess book is that from?
lol
good point
Fox in Socks
Never read that one, but love Suess
and the filthy boys pee all over the place, the floor, the seat, I hate using a shared bathroom
#29
Right.
I might decide to ‘identify’ as head of lettuce but that doesn’t mean I get to use the crisper drawer.
Oh, it’s a dangerous one... says so at the front.
I was at a poetry/prose reading the other night and a young lady (a nanny) got up and read the whole thing at top speed - nearly impossible, actually. She was resoundingly cheered upon completion.
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