David Michael Miller
A handful of parents are suing the Madison Metropolitan School District. These parents, who have chosen to stay anonymous, object to the district’s guidelines and policies around supporting transgender, non-binary and gender-expansive students. The parents are being represented and organized by the conservative lawsuit factory, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.
The rationale of the parents is mostly based around transphobic platitudes more than actual science. The suit states that the parents believe that the “sex each of us is born with is a gift, not an arbitrary imposition.” The mere fact that these parents are conflating sex with gender — most doctors and researchers will tell you that sex and gender are two very different things — is sign enough that these plantiffs are not operating in good faith.
Meanwhile, the work of the Madison school district to make our schools more inclusive is an attempt to address well-documented disparities faced by transgender, non-binary and gender-expansive students. Last year, the Centers for Disease Control published a study with data from multiple states, including Wisconsin, that showed that up to 27 percent of transgender students feel unsafe going to school. The good news is that the data also affirms another assumption — that students thrive when in a supportive environment. While not specific to transgender students, surveys show that LGBTQ+ students in an inclusive school environment feel safer and more connected to their schools.
So it’s no wonder that the Madison school district implemented these guidelines and policies to support transgender, non-binary and gender-expansive students. A major part of this support policy involves letting students decide to socially transition their gender at school. It just means that students get to use the name and the pronouns they want to use while they are at school and that they aren’t forced to use a particular bathroom. The policy also allows students to decide that they want teachers to continue to use the name and pronoun students were assigned at birth when talking with their parents.
Teachers and school staff aren’t making any decisions here. All they are doing is respecting the decision of the student. The school is just providing a safe space for students to grow and develop, to explore who they are. Isn’t that the point of education? Parents still need to give permission for students to officially change their name in school records. Parents need to be involved for students to take any sort of hormonal therapy.
Ideally, students would feel comfortable transitioning with their families at the same time they transition at school. Students know that, sometimes, their parents need more time to be open and accepting of their transition. These young adults don’t want to have to wait for their family to catch up.
In other situations, students explicitly know that their homes are not safe. Many minors have been kicked out of their homes for being transgender. As reported in the 2015 Dane County Youth Assessment, 19 percent of transgender-identifed high school students in the Madison school district reported being homeless in the last year, more than four times the rate of homelessness for cisgender students. As a parent myself, the most disturbing statistic was that 27 percent of Madison trans students reported that they had been hit by a parent.
The lawsuit against the school district even includes chilling language showing that there’s potential danger if teachers and staff are forced to share information that a student has decided to not to share at home. The suit states that the parents suing the district would not support their children transitioning and they’d “instead pursue a treatment approach to help them identify and address the underlying causes of the dysphoria and learn to embrace their biological sex.” They are describing conversion therapy.
Conversion therapy, particularly with minors, is a discredited, harmful practice. Transgender people who are exposed to conversion therapy have increased suicidal thoughts and make more attempts at suicide. Conversion therapy for youth has been banned in 19 states as well as in numerous communities around Wisconsin, including Madison. Conversion therapy is child abuse. Parents do not have the right to abuse their children.
The school district’s policies are based on solid evidence and, more importantly, are morally sound. The goal is not to keep families in the dark but to keep students safe. The threats of physical violence at home are real and far too common for transgender, non-binary and gender-expansive students in our community. So, too, is the psychological trauma of conversion therapy. Haven’t we moved beyond this?
Alan Talaga co-writes the Off the Square cartoon with Jon Lyons.
