Students Campaign for Accessible Gender Neutral Restroom in University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work

Did you know that the White House now has a gender-neutral restroom? This move is in line with much of the trans* friendly facilities. As a politico.com article released in April of 2015 states:

“The newly designated restroom is an example of how the administration has been advancing the discussion by raising the profile of transgender issues, an area of debate that is especially hotly contested right now. The restroom will be located in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where much of the White House staff works.”

AP Photo

There is also positive movement locally, as the city of Austin now requires all businesses to change their single-stall restrooms to be gender-neutral. In other words, single-stall restrooms must be accessible to anyone, regardless of gender identity or expression. Although tickets are not being written for violations of this policy, individuals can call 3-1-1 to report businesses that are not in compliance. 

At the University of Texas at Austin (UT) School of Social Work (SSW), students are campaigning to have an accessible gender-neutral restroom be implemented (full disclosure: the author of this blog post is leading participant of this campaign). While there is a single-stall gender-neutral restroom in the building, it is difficult to locate; many people who have used the building for years are unaware of its existence.

In an attempt to make the SSW building more trans* friendly, students organized the Gender Neutral Bathroom Campaign (GNBC) to work on this issue. Collaborating with the Social Justice Action Coalition, an established organization that allows students to put their social justice education into action, the GNBC planned a scavenger hunt to demonstrate how difficult it is to locate the current single-stall gender-neutral restroom in the building.

The second step for the GNBC was to distribute a building-wide survey to determine whether there was support for an accessible gender-neutral restroom. The results were favorable and demonstrated that a high majority of the respondents were in support of this campaign.

In April of 2015, three members (one of which was the author of this blog post) of the GNBC presented the results of the survey to the SSW faculty and staff. The GNBC gave a full report of the goals of the campaign, the need for trans* inclusive spaces, the results of the survey, and suggested steps for the restrooms in the SSW building.

The GNBC also distributed a survey to the faculty and staff during the meeting to investigate support or opposition more fully. The results have not yet been tabulated.

Lastly, the GNBC concluded that while creating an accessible gender-neutral restroom was a significant step, the bigger picture of creating gender and sexuality inclusive practices at the SSW should be the long-term goal.

Think Tank Position: Media Matters for America

The Media Matters for America blog published an article titled Debunking The Big MythAbout Transgender-Inclusive Bathrooms in March of 2014 that aimed to confront the assertion that trans* inclusive restrooms would increase assault and harassment of cisgender women by trans* individuals. This article was written by Carlos Maza who stated that conservative news outlets and individuals that have ignorant conceptions and fear of the trans* community are promoting these callous fabrications. While it is important to acknowledge that cisgender women face threats from cisgender men, the argument that trans* individuals should be restricted from using restrooms that fit their gender identity is based on oppressive tactics. As the Media Matters article explains:

“For as long as the transgender community has fought for protection from discrimination in public spaces, conservatives have peddled the myth that sexual predators will exploit non-discrimination laws to sneak into women's restrooms.” 

Unfortunately, this publicity tactic has been succeeded in convincing individuals and groups across the spectrum that multi-stall restrooms should be based on such preposterous limitations such as chromosomes (see post on HB 1748 in the Texas legislature). The Media Matters article notes that such tactics have increased the proliferation of laws that allow discrimination in public restrooms since conservative media outlets promote such baseless fears about trans* individuals.

Media Matters released a report to expose the myths surrounding the dangers of trans* inclusive restrooms. This report includes evidence from twelve states that have implemented non-discrimination laws around public restrooms and locker facilities and have had no issues as a result. Furthermore, Media Matters states that experts from these twelve states have rejected the unsubstantiated fears around trans* inclusive facilities.

But, who are these experts? Law enforcement officials, state human rights workers, and sexual assault victims advocates have all written emails or said on phone calls that there have been no assaults as a result of the non-discrimination laws. Below is a graphic from the Media Matters article that outlines some of the pertinent quotes from this report:

Maza continues the article by including information about a falsified story from the Christian Broadcasting Network that stated a girl was being harassed by a boy claiming to be transgender in the school restroom. Fox News picked up this story, which turned out to be fabricated as corroborated by the school superintendent and students at the school. Many of the news outlets who reported on this story published retractions or apologies.

Detailed information on the Media Matters report can be seen here.

An Article on Advocate.com about HB 2801

           In the article Texas Doubles Down on Transphobic Legislation,Adding $2,000 Fine for 'Wrong' Bathroom Use advocate.com writer Sunnive Brydum describes the effects Texas House Bill 2801 would have on trans* students. As mentioned in our previous posts, HB 2801 requires:
 

“School districts to adopt a policy that only students of the same biological sex may be present at the same time in any school bathroom facility.  It details the school's liability if a student encounters someone of a different sex in their bathroom facility, including $2,000 in damages, as well as attorney's fees and court costs.  This bill stipulates that schools should provide an alternative-use facility for students whose gender identity is different from their biological sex, but does not require that schools construct any such facilities.” (Previous Post)

Texas House Representative Gilbert Peña, who introduced HB 2801

            Brydum details how HB 2801 would affect trans* students, cis students, and the schools themselves should this bill pass. Trans* students would face increased criminalization of their right to gender self-determination. Cis students would be rewarded $2,000 or more for proving that they shared a restroom with a person who is not of the same “biological sex.”

Schools would be highly impacted by this bill because they would be subjected to expensive litigation costs and fines if they decide to respect the gender identity of their students. Furthermore, schools would be liable if:

“"if any employee of the district: (1) knew that the person was not of the same biological sex for which the bathroom, locker room, or shower facility was designated; and (2) permitted the person to enter or failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the person from entering the bathroom, locker room, or shower facility."

            The advocate.com article notes that HB 2801 was introduced after Texas State Representative Debbie Riddle’s HB 1748 & HB 1747 (see previous entries). Pena updated HB 280, imitating the

House Representative Debbie Riddle, who introduced HB 1748

language used in Riddle’s bills.  

There are some exceptions to both Riddle’s and Pena’s transphobic bills; allowing custodial and maintenance staff, parents helping children under the age of 5, individuals helping those with disabilities, and those delivering medical care to enter bathrooms that don’t match their sex assigned at birth. 

Florida and Kentucky have bills that are similar to HB 2801. So far Kentucky has approved their bill in the Republican-led senate in February 2015. The author of this article points out that Texas, Florida, and Kentucky all seem to be ignoring how the trans* population is at greater risk of harassment and violence in restrooms than cis individuals. Also, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality, 59% of trans* students say that they are not allowed to use school restrooms that match their gender identity. Furthermore, these bills are likely to increase harassment and stigmatization towards trans* students, as well as cause this population to disengage or drop out from school.

The one piece of good news is that “in 2004 the Department of Education stated that gender identity is protected under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” However, this is clearly not enough to eliminate transphobic bills from being introduced in various states.

  Brydum closes the article by discussing why much of this legislation is being presented. Based on public testimony, much of the legislation comes from the fear that trans* women will attack ciswomen and children. However, this is an unnecessary fear as demonstrated by the fact that there have never been any reports of attacks by trans* individuals attacking or harassing cisgender people. Nor have their been any cismen posing as transwomen in order to attack women or children.

Transgender Day of Visibility at the Capitol

Tuesday, March 31, 2015 - Today I went to the Capitol as a cis-ally for Transgender Day of Visibility.  Through Equality Texas, Caomhán Ó Raghallaigh organized a lobbying-type event where transgender people spoke directly to members of Congress about how House Bills 1747, 1748, 2801, and 2802 would affect their daily lives.  I was there as a quiet supporter, agreeing with my group without taking the spotlight away from them.

My group consisted of four transwomen - Claire, Noel, Anna, and Kayleigh - plus myself.  We were scheduled to visit the staff members of five friendly, liberal members of Congress to give them some ammunition to fight these discriminatory House Bills while they are still in committee.  We hoped that by telling personal, compelling stories about how these bills affect real-life people, our supporters in Congress would be able to shut the bills down before they went to public hearings.

Claire, a lawyer by training, had some serious ammunition to lobby against these bills.  She reminded the staff members that these bills were making it criminal for someone to be who they were in a space designated for people to do a common purpose (use the restroom) while most legislation requires someone to have criminal intent or have conducted a criminal act before they are prosecuted.  She also reminded the staff members that studies show that transgender people are always the victims of violence, rather than the perpetrators of violence.  She argued that these bills assume that transgender people are using the "wrong" restrooms because they are intending to cause harm to the cis-citizens in that restroom.  However, should a transgender person use the bathroom associated with their assigned gender, rather than their gender identity, they would most certainly become victims of violence.  Transwomen presenting as female, she argued, would not be received well in a men's bathroom.  Claire mentioned that in November, Transgender Day of Rememberance remembers all of the transgender people who were brutally murdered during the year because of their identities.  Last year, 300 transgender people were murdered, 10% of whom are still unidentified because of the severity of their injuries.  This, she argued, goes to show that transgender people are the victims of violence, not the perpetrators, making these bills especially dangerous to an already vulnerable population.

Both Claire and Kayleigh shared personal stories about being discriminated against for their gender identity in public restroom spaces.  Kayleigh was bra shopping when the attendant told her she wasn't allowed to use the fitting rooms, and Claire was using a public restroom when a man entered, did a double take, and decided to leave.  Though the incidences were technically small, they were each caused a huge amount of pain from not being recognized and accepted for who they are.

The new legislation, they both argued, would make public spaces even more unsafe for transgender people.  Transgender women already have high rates of dehydration, kidney infections, and urinary tract infections (UTIs) from trying to avoid using public restrooms.  A study by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law found that 70% of transgender and gender non-conforming people in Washington DC have been denied access, verbally harassed, or physically assaulted in public restrooms, showing that these spaces are already unsafe.

Though the staff we talked to at the Capitol today were all in favor of abolishing these bills and supporting their transgender constituents, I am afraid that not all of the legislators would have been so welcoming had we walked into their offices.  As an ally, I was noticing the stares my group received as we walked down the busy halls of the Texas Capitol, though nobody said anything outright.  Also, though we were at the Capitol for several hours, I noticed that none of my group members ever mentioned having to use the bathroom.

HB 2801 and HB 2802

Part 2 of the Bathroom Bill Debacle

(read part 1 here)

            Quickly after Rep Riddle submitted HB 1747 and HB 1748 (see previous post about these discriminatory "bathroom bills"), questions arose about who would enforce those new regulations on public facilities.  Rep Gilbert Peña filed HB 2801 and HB 2802 to answer those questions, basically asserting that any citizen could "turn in" someone of the opposite gender using the incorrect facilities, and the offending person would have to pay the citizen a fine.  Caomhán Ó Raghallaigh (pronounced Cavan) of Equality Texas calls these bills "bounty bills" - explaining that they basically put a collectable bounty on the head of any transgender person who tries to use a restroom that matches their gender identity.  Below you will find a summary of these "bounty bills:"

HB 2801: AN ACT RELATING TO THE USE OF A BATHROOM, LOCKER ROOM, OR SHOWER FACILITY IN A PUBLIC SCHOOL.  SEPARATION BASED ON BIOLOGICAL SEX REQUIRED.

Rep Gilbert Peña

            This bill requires school districts to adopt a policy that only students of the same biological sex may be present at the same time in any school bathroom facility.  It details the school's liability if a student encounters someone of a different sex in their bathroom facility, including $2,000 in damages, as well as attorney's fees and court costs.  This bill stipulates that schools should provide an alternative-use facility for students whose gender identity is different from their biological sex, but does not require that schools construct any such facilities.

Bill Text 

HB 2802: AN ACT RELATING TO THE USE OF PUBLIC BATHROOMS, LOCKER ROOMS, AND SHOWER FACILITIES; CREATING A CRIMINAL OFFENSE.

Rep Gilbert Peña

            This bill creates a Class B misdemeanor for anyone who enters a public facility designated for use by persons of the opposite biological sex.  It also awards $2,000 in damages to anyone who encounters someone of the opposite sex in the bathroom, as well as damages for mental anguish, court costs, and reasonable attorney's fees. 

Bill Text 

Basically, both of these bills would allow someone to receive an award of $2,000 at minimum for encountering someone of the opposite biological sex in a public facility, rewarding people for being gender police in public areas.  Several articles have used the term "bounty bills" to describe these solutions to the question of enforcement in Riddle's original legislation.  These bills mirror legislation that has been submitted in Florida and Kentucky to regulate the ability of transgender and intersex people to use the appropriate bathrooms relating to their gender identities.

In our next post, we will write about one blogger's experience as a cis-ally at the Transgender Day of Awareness at the Texas Capitol, where we lobbied several House Representatives to demolish these bills before they ever hit the floor.