Social Injustice and Cultural Identifiers Research Essay
5

Maria Thompson

Grand Canyon University

EDU 330: Social Justice for Educators

Professor Deb Lynch

Nov. 1, 2020

Running head: ASSIGNMENT TITLE HERE

1

Culture plays such a huge part in a person’s everyday life. Often people think of the “major” cultural identifiers such as race, religion, age, and gender. But there are many more cultural identifiers than that. A cultural identifier is the identity of a group or culture. There are many cultural identifiers within a community. A more recent “hot” cultural identifier is being transgender or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex. More specifically, transgenders and bathroom usage.

The cultural identifier of being transgender is close to my heart for several reasons. When I was growing up, my best friend had an uncle who was transgender. As a child I never noticed how my Aunt Julia was treated or looked at or treated differently. It was being a teen or adult that I noticed the looks that people gave her, or how the room would become quiet or people would “ whisper” as she was in the room. What really bothered me is that whenever we would go out to eat or to the movies, Aunt Julia would NOT use the bathroom, she would wait until she got home. Can you imagine, holding it until you got home because you did not want to make people feel uncomfortable, or you simply did not feel safe enough to use the bathroom? That’s horrible! Another reason why I care about this specific cultural identifier is because I work at a middle school, 6th through 8th grade. There are a few transgender students in our building. When it comes to bathroom usage or changing for PE, these few students have to go to the nurses office. Again, can you imagine having no other place, in a school building that is 3 stories high, but the nurse’s office to use the bathroom or change for PE? The nurse’s office, which is on the first floor, that is filled with students that are sick with fever, stomach issues, in need of daily medicines. That is the ONLY place where our transgender students have to use the bathroom or change for PE, and I do not think that that is fair to those students.

Being transgender is nothing “new” here in America, in fact, being transgender is not something

“new” worldwide. Yet as long as being transgender has been around, the transgender community

is STILL fighting for their rights to exist as a people and have everyday human rights. There are

many important events that has put the transgender community in the spotlight both good and

bad. In 1969- The Stonewall riots took place in Manhattan, New York. The Stonewall was an Inn

which was frequented often by the LGBTQ members. This incident set off the LGBTQ

movement or fight for equality and equal rights (which sadly, they are still fighting for equal

rights today in 2020). There are many events that has added to the cause of this group. Such as

2009- The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. hate crimes prevention act becomes a law

2015- Military allows transgender people to openly serve within the military

2015- The equality Act is introduced

2016- May 2016: The Obama administration publicly supports transgender students.

“Schools are responsible for providing a safe, nurturing, educational environment for all

students, and many schools have taken steps to address the needs of transgender students.”

(Philips, 2017. P. 101). The LGBTQ community, much like many other minority communities,

they are often underserviced and not protected, respected, or given the same fair and equal

treatment as he majority of cultures/people. When it comes to transgender students, bathroom

usage and rights are a hot topic. What it comes down to bathroom rights it comes down to, “The

challenge arises in part from disparate views of how to effectuate this in the school arena and the

belief by some that it is impossible to fully meet the needs of transgender students without

adversely affecting the needs of non-transgender students.” (Philips, 2017. P. 101). Basically,

transgender student’s bathroom rights come down to their safety and comfortability verses non-

transgender students safety and comfortability, and let’s not forget what the law has to say about

it.

There are many opinions on this controversial topic. One judge summarized his opinion as

“as one judge summarized the “logic” behind the concern: [A] student would in essence

masquerade as being transgender, and would then use a designated student restroom inconsistent

with their assigned sex. This would all occur in an effort to visually examine the sex organs of

other restroom users or to engage in some other blatant and malicious invasion of bodily privacy

(Evancho v. PineRichland School District, No. CV 2:16-01537, 2017 WL 770619 (W.D. Pa.

2017).” (Philips, 2017. P.102). Acting Deputy Director James A. Ferg-Cadima, “When a school

elects to separate or treat students differently on the basis of sex in those situations, a school

generally must treat transgender students consistent with their gender identity. OCR also

encourages schools to offer the use of gender-neutral, individual user facilities to any student

who does not want to use shared sex-segregated facilities. (Ferg-Cadima, 2015)”. (Philips, 2017.

P. 105).

The issues and policies that are set in place for transgender students and bathroom usage

could affect my future classroom and students for the better. This will not affect my teaching

style, or exactly how or what I teach. However, it will make me teach more about how all people

are created equal (per the US Constitution) and how unfortunately even though it is written in a

legal document it does not apply to everyone. So I will definitely end up teaching character

lessons and social justice lessons to my students. Also, I feel that this will also make me become

more of an advocate for the LGBTQ community, to be an ally and stand up with them when it

comes to matters that affect them. Remembering how ashamed or embarrassed my Aunt Julia

was made to feel by strangers, by people who did not even try to understand or educate

themselves about the LGBTQ community is infuriating as well as disappointing. That in 2020

there are people that STILL are fighting for basic human rights that the Constitution guaranteed

to all people.

There are policies set in place when it comes to transgender students and bathroom usage. But

with it being a fairly or somewhat new issue, nothing is set in stone yet. At this stage, it is trial

and error right now. “Schools often segregate restrooms and locker rooms by sex, but some

schools have policies that students must be permitted to access facilities consistent with their

gender identity and not be required to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity or

alternative facilities” (Title IX and Sex discrimination. P. 13).

References

Philips, Rosmary R. The Battle Over Bathrooms: Schools, Courts, and Transgender Rights. Retrieved from https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=fe19e667-04f4-4f95-bf63-6fc7fe3e6cb6%40sessionmgr4007

Webster, Emma Sarran 20 Historic Moments in the Fight for LQBTQ rights Retrieved from

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/lgbt-equality-key-moments-timeline

Title IX and Sex discrimination Retrieved from

https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/tix_dis.html