EDITORIAL

State ed board LGBTQ guidelines shouldn't be controversial

Free Press Editorial Board
A 2014 rally at the State House in Lansing, Mich.

"I'm a trumpet player, an AP student and a club leader, and four years ago I wanted to die."

Thus began the powerful testimony of 18-year-old Aiden, at Tuesday's State Board of Education review of proposed guidelines for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer students in Michigan public schools — a set of voluntary, opt-in recommendations to make safe school environments for LGBTQ Michigan students that shouldn't be controversial.

Aiden is a transgender man. Born with female anatomy at birth, he identifies as male. It's the difference between gender identity — the gender you know that you are — and sex — the sex you're assigned at birth.

If you aren't transgender, or have never known a transgender person, this can be a difficult concept to understand. But here's the thing — you don't have to understand transgender people to accept that they exist, or to recognize statistics that show they're at great risk. About 41% of transgender people will attempt suicide at least once. Violence against transgender people continues to rise. Transgender kids are targets for bullying and harassment. All too often, transgender kids aren't safe at home, if their parents don't understand or don't accept them.

Aiden, whose family is supportive — his father also testified in favor of the guidelines — attended a succession of schools and tried online education before finding a school whose faculty and staff worked to help him feel comfortable. Once, he thought suffering was part of being transgender, he told the board. Now, Aiden said, he understands that pain was a reflection of the way far too much of the world views people like him.

More input sought as LGBTQ proposal stirs controversy

The board's proposed guidelines recognize the risks students like Aiden face, and offer districts a template to create policies and structures to support such students.

"We know from the experience of schools that have these or similar guidelines that LGBTQ student achievement rises; students have fewer absences and violence, harassment and bullying aimed at transgender and gender non-conforming kids becomes less frequent," said Amy Hunter, transgender advocacy coordinator for the ACLU of Michigan. "Every student deserves the chance to learn in a safe and supportive environment that encourages respect and dignity for all kids. These recommended guidelines help accomplish that."

Most of the guidelines center on helping transgender or gender nonconforming students to live their authentic selves — like allowing schools to use students' commonly used, rather than legal, names on official documents, or proposing that school employees get professional training to help support LGBTQ kids, start programs to help support families of LGBTQ kids, adopt gender-neutral dress codes and refrain from organizing gender-segregated activities.

The suggested guidelines that have drawn the most fire include a recommendation that schools' communication with a transgender or gender nonconforming student's parents use the student's legal name and gender, unless OK'd by the student or parent, and a recommendation that students use the bathroom corresponding to the gender they identify as, rather than their biological sex.

But even these recommendations shouldn't be controversial. In the case of the latter, it's not only cruel to force a student who identifies and presents as a female to use a men's bathroom, or vice versa; it's a potential breach of privacy for a transgender student -- and potentially places that student at risk.

State ed board considers policy on LGBTQ students

The notion that male students would adopt female dress (critics never seem to imagine the reverse scenario), to gain access to a women's restroom is a repulsive canard.

As for the former recommendation, it's a sad truth that some transgender or gender nonconforming students aren't safe at home. Asking schools to respect those students' wishes isn't an attempt to cut parents out of their children's lives, as some wrong-headed critics have suggested; it's a recognition of the fact that transgender and gender nonconforming students can be in danger of abuse from parents who don't understand or approve of their gender identity. Such critics often make the mistake of assuming students have chosen to be transgender. But just like sexual orientation, gender identity is not a choice.

The board heard testimony Tuesday from numerous Michiganders who, like Aiden, spoke in support of the guidelines, telling how such inclusivity would have changed their lives for the better.

Some testified against the standards — including state Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton.

Sen. Patrick Colbeck

We have to give Colbeck credit for squeezing an abundance of hateful stereotypes about LGBTQ people into just three minutes of testimony. It was a dizzying feat of bigotry, and a striking attempt to minimize the real threats and challenges LGBTQ people face — the standards, he said, would make schools less safe. And, just for funsies, shouted out to the kind of anti-LGBTQ AIDS hysteria we thought went out in the 1980s — "It's not bullying or peer pressure that leads to higher rates of AIDS in the LGBT community."

Colbeck also dismissed the danger posed by bullying of LGBT kids, referring to his own childhood struggles:  "No policies protect kids who get good grades and carry a trombone."

Perhaps the senator is unaware of the national anti-bullying crusade that's swept the country in the past decade? We encourage Colbeck to consult the schools in Canton, where the senator makes his home, and where schools — along with the township itself — have made concerted efforts to halt bullying.

Colbeck encouraged LGBT kids who are bullied to turn to "faith and family," as he did.  But the senator offered no suggestions for LGBT kids whose families will have nothing to do with them, or whose faith does not accept them.

The senator claimed to speak for the 7th District he represents; we're disinclined to believe his regressive ignorance is representative of the fine people of Canton.

But we'd rather leave you with testimony from Aiden, who asked the state board to ignore the backlash and do the right thing.

"I ask you today on what side of history you will stand? Do not underestimate the power of your vote. These guidelines could and would save lives ... . Morals do not bend to prejudice. Progress does not kneel to fear. So where will you stand? Board, will you stand with me?"

We certainly hope so.