Advertisement

The Transgender Rights Debate In Public Schools

46:04
Download Audio
Resume

The Obama administration says public schools must let transgender students use the bathroom of their choice. How will this work?

A sign marks the entrance to a gender-neutral restroom at the University of Vermont in Burlington. The Obama administration Friday offered guidance to schools across the country about what they could do to protect civil rights of students. (Toby Talbot/AP File)
A sign marks the entrance to a gender-neutral restroom at the University of Vermont in Burlington. The Obama administration Friday offered guidance to schools across the country about what they could do to protect civil rights of students. (Toby Talbot/AP File)

“Significant guidance,” they called it Friday, when the federal justice and education departments laid down, in effect, new rules for how all publicly funded schools in the United States – Kindergarten through college – accommodate transgender students. Guidance to say transgender students should have access to the bathrooms, sports teams, locker rooms and more of their choice. The country is absorbing this. Some resisting this. This hour On Point: the new rules on transgender access and how they will work.
-Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Dominic Holden, national LGBT reporter for BuzzFeed News. (@dominicholden)

Thomas Aberli, principal of J.M. Atherton High School, which has a transgender student nondiscrimination policy that allows students to use the locker rooms and restrooms in accordance with their gender identity.
Jeremy Tedesco, senior legal counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom. (@Jeremy_Tedesco)

From Tom's Reading List

Obama Administration To Tell Schools Transgender Students Can Use Restroom Of Choice — "Amid a national debate over transgender people’s access to restrooms, the Obama administration sent guidelines to public schools on Friday saying they cannot discriminate against transgender students in a wide range of settings — from restrooms to sports teams." (BuzzFeed News)

Seat of Unrest — "Thomas Aberli, the principal of Atherton High School in Louisville, Ky., didn’t know anything about transgender issues when the question arose at his school. But when a transgender student came to the administration asking for accommodations, he quickly moved to educate himself on the legal issues involved." (New York Daily News)

Debate rages over Fort Worth ISD superintendent’s transgender bathroom policy — "Fort Worth became ground zero in Texas’ political fight over transgender rights after Patrick demanded the resignation of Superintendent Kent Scribner, saying he implemented a district policy to support transgender students without properly consulting parents." (Dallas Morning News)

This program aired on May 16, 2016.

Advertisement

More from On Point

Listen Live
Close