Maine rules in favor of transgendered student on restroom use

July 17th, 2009 • Related • Filed Under

Matt Kailey – Transgender Issues Examiner

The Maine Human Rights Commission ruled in favor of a transgendered male-to-female student who was not allowed to use to girls’ restroom.

The Bangor Daily News reports that the child, who was born male but who has a female gender identity and lives as a girl, had been using the girls’ restroom at school until the fifth grade, when a male student began to harass her and follow her into the restroom, using anti-gay slurs.

The school suspended the male student, but then restricted the trans student to a single-stall faculty bathroom. The Commission ruled that the Orono School Department violated the child’s rights by preventing her from using the girls’ restroom.

This was the second case the Commission has ruled on recently regarding transgendered people and public restroom use. In May, the Commission ruled that a Denny’s restaurant in Auburn had discriminated against Brianna Freeman, a trans woman and a regular Denny’s customer, when the restaurant refused to let her use the women’s restroom. Denny’s told her that she could not use the women’s restroom until she had sex reassignment surgery, even though she is clearly living as a woman.

Public restroom use is one of the most problematic — and misunderstood — issues that trans people have to face.

In the case of Freeman, another female customer complained that there was a man in the women’s restroom, although Freeman was dressed as a woman, living as a woman, and using a locked restroom stall. This is not an uncommon scenario, but it is an unfortunate one.

The reality is that Freeman, a woman, was using the women’s restroom. The fact that she was born male has no bearing on the restroom that she uses now, regardless of the surgeries that she has or has not had. The same is true for the transgendered student.

For many trans people, especially early in transition, using the public restroom is one of the most terrifying experiences we must endure. We simply want to get in, take care of business, and get out. We have no interest in what anyone else is doing, and we prefer that no one else is interested in what we are doing.

For those who believe otherwise — that we are in the restroom for some nefarious purpose or that we have some concern about what activities you or others are involved in — you can relax. We, like you, are just there to do what we need to do and get on with life.

A public restroom is just that — a public restroom. It is open to the public, of which trans people are members. Restrooms are designated by gender, and we each use the one that is appropriate for us.

I have been in a lot of public restrooms in my life, as a female and as a male, and believe me, a trans person using the facilities should be the least of anyone’s worries.

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