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elleng

(130,126 posts)
Sun Jun 23, 2013, 09:50 PM Jun 2013

Rights Unit Finds Bias Against Transgender Student.

Last edited Sun Jun 23, 2013, 10:27 PM - Edit history (1)

A Colorado school district discriminated against a transgender first grader when it refused to let her use the girl’s bathroom, the state’s civil rights division has determined, a decision gay and transgender advocates say will have an indelible impact on how such cases are handled in the future.

In a sharply worded ruling, the division concluded that the Fountain-Fort Carson School District needlessly created a situation in which the student, Coy Mathis, would be subject to harassment when it barred her from the girls’ bathroom even though she clearly identified as female.

Telling Coy “that she must disregard her identity while performing one of the most essential human functions constitutes severe and pervasive treatment, and creates an environment that is objectively and subjectively hostile, intimidating or offensive,” Steven Chavez, the division director, wrote in the decision.

The dispute over whether Coy, 6, should be allowed to use the girls’ bathroom was seen by some as a critical test of how state antidiscrimination laws were applied to transgender students. . .

“When I told Coy we won, she got this giant smile and her eyes bugged out. She said, ‘So I can go to school and make friends?’ ”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/us/agency-says-district-discriminated-against-transgender-student.html?hp&_r=0

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