Individual Position Paper

For most people, gender is a simple concept: If you have a penis, youre a boy. If you
have a vagina, youre a girl. Beyond that, theres nothing to discuss. However, gender is far more
complicated than a binary system akin to what most people are used to. If you talk about whats
between your legs, youre talking about sex, not gender. Even sex isnt binary, as some
individuals are born intersex, but its relatively simple as sex is defined by your physical
characteristics. Gender goes far beyond that, and if that statement leaves you scratching your
head, then that further proves the severity of this issue. There are many people who dont feel
like the gender that society has told them they are is who they really are. There are many people
who dont feel like either gender, and people who feel like both. This is also completely separate
from sexual orientation, as a male-bodied individual who identifies as a woman and is attracted
to men is still heterosexual. Transgendered individuals and other non-cisgender (cisgender
meaning your gender identity matches with your birth sex) individuals are exactly what they
identify as. A transgender girl is no less a girl than a cisgender girl. The mindset that says
otherwise leads to the bullying, violence, and even murder of transgender people. Transgender
people deserve rights far beyond what they currently possess. I support legislation to grant
transgender students the right to access their respective gender-segregated facilities, such as
locker rooms and restrooms, regardless of their birth sex, documented gender, or their progress in
transition. A bill that demonstrates my beliefs would be Californias AB 1266.
In a Lambda Legal pamphlet for school staff in regards to transgender students, the
author cites the following study and also brings up an important point: In a 2007 study by the
Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), 87 percent of transgender students
reported that they had been verbally harassed because of their gender expression, and 53 percent
reported that they had been physically harassed. The more harassment that students faced, the
less likely they were to maintain higher GPAs, attend all their classes, and plan for college
(Lambda Legal 26). When a school institutionalizes the mindset that transgender individuals are
not truly the gender they identify as, in ways such as forcing them to use facilities matching with
their birth sex, it further facilitates an environment where transgender students are not welcome,
not appreciated, and above all else, not accepted or loved. The bullying and harassment of
transgender people goes far beyond typical name-calling in both action and significance. Any
bullying of transgender people brings with it a society that actively oppresses them solely based

on something they cant control. Its discrimination in every sense, and transgender people are
one of the most oppressed minorities in the Western world. The National Center for Transgender
Equality says this, More than four of five transgender youth (82%) reported that they felt unsafe
at school because of who they were. Nearly nine out of ten reported experiencing transphobic or
homophobic harassment from peers, and most reported that it happened often or frequently.
A majority of transgender students said they had been shoved, pushed, or otherwise
physically harassed at school in the last year. Nearly half (44%) of transgender students said
they've been punched, kicked, or injured with a weapon on at least one occasion in the last year.
Three out of four (76%) reported that they had experienced unwanted sexual remarks or touching
from peers.Large majorities reported both cyberbullying (62%) and the theft or destruction of
their property (67%) by peers (Transgender Equality Network 2). Its our generations duty to
defeat societys crushing oppression of transgender people. Integration and acceptance is the first
step, just as it was with African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s.
Many people, such as members of the Christian coalition known as Privacy for All
Students, try to argue that allowing transgender people to use their respective gender-segregated
facilities is an invasion of privacy towards cisgender people, due to the intimate nature of the
facilities. I cannot begin to talk about how infuriating this argument is, but Ill address it in a
formal manner. The first problem with this argument is that students genitals arent the concern
of a school district. If this coalition is concerned about an invasion of privacy, scrutinizing whats
between students legs would definitely constitute such an invasion. Another problem is the
heteronormative nature of the argument. In short, the argument assumes every cisgender person
is straight. Gays and lesbians use the facilities associated with their birth sex, yet they are in
intimate environments with the same sex. Of course, the members of Privacy for All Students are
most likely against gay rights too, so maybe its not worth pointing that out. Privacy for All
Students also says that people could easily say that theyre transgender to go into the opposite
sexs facilities, and this makes just as little sense. No person would subject themselves to the
horrible bullying and harassment that transgender people face simply to peek in a locker room.
Its not like identifying as transgender is something you can do under the radar at a school
populated with hundreds to thousands of students. This argument is an internal hatred of
transgender people thinly veiled as a serious argument.

Equality for transgender and gender nonconforming individuals has a very long way to
go. However, supporting legislation similar to Californias AB 1266 is the first step in a societal
acceptance of our transgender citizens. Ill end this paper with a personal story. Earlier today, I
was browsing the internet like usual, when I came across a series of posts by a transgender friend
of mine, a girl named Melanie. The posts detailed how much she hated being transgender, and
how badly she wanted to kill herself. She stated that she would blow her brains out, but then
would be unable to see her dead body sprawled across the floor. This is what happens to
transgender people in our current society. They live in a world that is so unaccepting of them that
they simply wish they could die. This is not a mere overlap with people suffering from clinical
depression. The societal stigma surrounding being transgender has led to statistics like this one
detailed in MedicalDaily: trans participants expressed signs of clinical depression (44.1
percent), anxiety (33.2 percent), and somatization (27.5 percent), in which their mental state was
converted into physical symptoms (Scutti 1). Almost half of the transgender population suffers
from clinical depression. And, even more alarming, according to LiveScience approximately 41
percent of transgender individuals have attempted suicide. This are numbers we cant ignore. Its
time to fight the injustice and move towards equality for all people, not just the cisgendered.

Works Cited
"Peer Violence and Bullying Against Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Youth: Submission to
the United States Commission on Civil Rights May 2011." National Center for
Transgender Equality. National Center for Transgender Equality, n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2014.
<http://transequality.org/PDFs/US%20Civ%20Rts%20Commn%20NCTE%20statement
%205%206%2011.pdf>.

Scutti, Susan. "Transgender People More Likely To Develop Depression And Anxiety." Medical
Daily. N.p., 21 June 2013. Web. 12 Jan. 2014.
<http://www.medicaldaily.com/transgender-people-more-likely-develop-depressionand-anxiety-247044>.
"National Center for Transgender Equality: Home." TransEquality RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan.
2014. <http://transequality.org/index.html>.

Moskowitz, Clara. "High Suicide Risk, Prejudice Plague Transgender People." LiveScience.
TechMedia Network, 19 Nov. 2010. Web. 12 Jan. 2014.
<http://www.livescience.com/11208-high-suicide-risk-prejudice-plague-transgenderpeople.html>.
"What is intersex?." Intersex Society of North America. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2014.
<http://www.isna.org/faq/what_is_intersex>.
"Working With Transgender Students." Lambda Legal. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2014.
<http://data.lambdalegal.org/publications/downloads/osr-admin_working-withtransgender-students.pdf>.