In a precedent-setting win, a transgender first grader in the U.S. now has the legal right to use the girls' washroom at school.
According to an article in Salon, Coy Mathis was told by the Fountain-Fort Carson School District in Colorado that from December 2012 she could no longer use the female bathroom on the basis that it could be “psychologically damaging” to fellow students.
Her parents were informed that going forward Coy would have to use the boys' bathroom, a staff or a nurse's facilities rather than using the bathroom that corresponds with her gender identity.
“This ruling sends a loud and clear message that transgender students may not be targeted for discrimination and that they must be treated equally in school,” said Michael Silverman, the executive director of Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. “It is a victory for Coy and a triumph for fairness.”
It is a clear cause for celebration for the transgender community and for Mathis herself, whose parents decided to homeschool her while awaiting the ruling.
“When I told Coy we won, she got this giant smile and her eyes bugged out. She said, ‘So I can go to school and make friends?’,” said Coy's mother Kathryn Mathis. The ruling was preceded by another gender first.
Do you agree with the ruling? Do you think which bathroom a child uses has the potential to be "psychologically damaging" to other students?
Are babies sexual? What started out as a seemingly ludicrous comment by an American politician, Rep. Michael Burgess—about masturbating fetuses—may not be so laughable after all.
An article in Salon cites a controversial 1985 speech by sex educator Mary Calderone which sought to provide evidence of erections in fetuses.
To our conservative minds, all manner of sexuality comes later. Much later. We like to believe that babies, and indeed little kids, are white slates of innocence. And that the onset of puberty alone is the game-changer.
If Burgess is to be believed, babies aren't simply sexual beings in the utero, they are active sexual beings, who willingly arouse themselves early on.
“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” said the former obstetrician and gynecologist. “If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain?”
Though the media and many a comedian had a field day with Burgess' soundbites, could he be onto something there?
For many centuries, argues the article in Salon, people have worried that sex ed would encourage children to indulge a premature interest in sex, but what if that interest were there all along?
If Calderone is to be believed, then children actually “discover their sexuality no later than kindergarten." Critics of this argument worry that such thinking can only encourage pedophiles to exploit said feelings.
Until we face up to the fact that kids are sexual beings, Calderone claims, America will "never have real sex education." So maybe this sex ed book for kindergarteners is right on track, then.
Do you agree?
Health Canada, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (US CPSC) and Kolcraft Enterprises Inc. have jointly recalled Jeep Liberty strollers manufactured between June 2010 and September 2011 with the following model numbers:
While Health Canada received one report that did not result in injuries, Kolcraft and the CPSC have received 39 reports of the inner tube ruptures leading to 18 incidents involving bodily lacerations, most of which occurred while caregivers were filling the tires with air. Two children suffered lacerations to their chin/leg while standing near the stroller. Two further reports included damage to property.
Customers are advised to stop using the stroller until they receive a replacement repair kit from Kolcraft comprising three replacement wheels. Tires should then be manually inflated, to a maximum of 30 p.s.i., using a bicycle pump.
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