It's name is the Student Success and Opportunity Act, but it is also known also known as AB 1266. And its opponents call it "the bathroom bill."
The law prohibits exclusion of transgender students from sex-segregated programs. Those include sports teams and physical education classes.
The organized opposition to the bill call themselves "Privacy for All Students." The group has a logo, which consists of an apple surrounding the stereotypical silhouettes of a man and a woman one would encounter on restroom doors…separated by a vertical line. The major players in Privacy for All Students are the Pacific Justice Institute and the National Organization for Marriage.
The opposition claims that they are not opposed to transgender students, but rather are concerned that boys will claim to be transgender in order to be able to use the girls restroom in order to spy on the girls. Because, you know, there is nothing sexier than someone eliminating waste from their body.
Even if we disregarded the fact that one can't simply start using the facilities of a different gender on a whim, nobody has found an instance of a boy pretending to be transgender for any reason other than to humiliate or deride transgender kids.
A student can assert a gender identity at school at any time. Because gender identity is based on feelings… he or she can be both transgender and heterosexual at the same time."
--PrivacyforAllStudents.com
These fringe organizations have been failing on issues like marriage, and now they’ve turned to targeting students.
--Mark Snyder, Transgender Law Center
Personally, I'd rather they got their own house in order before they tried to force transgender kids to submit to their view of appropriate behavior.
Raising my Rainbow (Lori Duron) authored a heartbreaking piece over at Queerty: When the Boys' Room Isn't Safe for a Boy. This Orange County, CA mother has a son (CJ) who is six and a half. Even though the child has been potty-trained since he was three, he recently peed his pants in his first grade classroom. He then sat in his urine until the bell rang. When he got to his car, his pants were soaked and cold. He started crying.
I’m so ashamed of myself.
…he repeated over and over again.
The mother discovered that her son, who has long auburn hair, a feminine backpack, and likes to wear pink and purple clothes and a wrist full of rainbow-colored bracelets, has been avoiding the use of the restroom at school. He's been to terrified to do so.
On his first visit to the boys’ bathroom, he headed straight for the safety of the stall. Boys started peeking through the cracks in the stall to see if he was going pee or poop. Pooping at school is an embarrassment. He avoided the bathroom for as long as he could. The next time he had to go, he, again, walked straight to the stall. He locked the door behind him. He lifted the toilet seat lid and unzipped his pants. He could hear them talking. He could hear them looking. He turned around. Boys were peeking through cracks again. This time they were trying to see his genitals. They wanted to know if my son has a penis or a vagina.
Transgender people don't do that.
This boy has stopped drinking his juice boxes at school lunch. He refuses to drink anything at breakfast.
He’ll do anything to avoid having strangers look at his private parts while taking bets as to what they’ll see when they get to see something.
This boy wouldn't be comfortable in the girls' restroom either…because he identifies as a boy. He wants to use the boys' bathroom…but the theme in there seems to be
Lord of the Flies. It is loud, messy, and run by the boys who dominate the playground. Adults are not allowed (the principal and vice principal at the school are both women). Being weak makes you a target.
The boy has been given the option of using the nurse's bathroom in the front office. But that mostly seems miles away. And if he uses that bathroom, he faces inquiries from the other kids.
So he holds his pee from 7:40am until 2:30pm…if he can.
Adults are telling this mom that she needs to teach her non-aggressive son how to stick up for himself if he doesn't like what is happening.
She has tried to teach him what to say:
"Stop looking at my privates.”
“You’re being rude.”
“If you don’t stop, I’m going to tell.”
“How would you like it if someone was watching you go to the bathroom?”
“Don’t be gross.”
“What you’re doing is not okay.”
“STOP IT!”
My son isn’t using the boys’ bathroom, he’s not using the girls’ bathroom, he’s hardly using a bathroom at all. I worry every day. Going to the bathroom should be the easiest part of the school day.
But, for my son, it’s not.
CJ's parents call CJ "gender-creative" or "gender non-conforming."