California is First State to Pass
Transgender-Student Bill
California is
the first state to pass a law allowing any transgender student in public school
from kindergarten to high school the right to choose whatever bathroom they
wish to use. Also, they have the right to participate on whichever sports team
they believe matches their gender identity. Assembly Bill 1266 took effect on
January 1, 2014 after being approved in both the California State Senate and
Assembly and effects 6.2 million children in California’s public schools.
This law
conforms to Koyama beliefs in transfeminism that people should be allowed to
construct their “own gender identities based on what feels genuine, comfortable
and sincere” allowing each individual to “live and relate to others within
given social and cultural constraint.” Supporters of this bill indicated that
now each and every transgender student in California will be able to attend
school and participate in sports as their ‘authentic self.’
People that
oppose this bill indicate that it is an invasion of students’ privacy by
allowing students of one gender to use facilities intended for the other. Other
opponents say that this will allow boys to claim they identify themselves as a
girl and freely use the girls’ bathroom.
They also suggest that this law does not protect from allowing a person
who identifies with being the opposite genetic sex and is attracted to both men
and women from freely using both male and female bathrooms. Other opposition
suggests that it strips women of their rights making it easier for cases of
sexual harassment.
Assembly Bill
1266 was authored by Assembly member Tom Ammiano of San Francisco and signed
into law by Governor Jerry Brown.
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