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?
Printer-friendly version