Meet “Gavin” Grimm, a 16-year-old from Virginia who “became a boy” and now wants to use the boys’ bathroom at the local high school.
“Gavin,” who was born a girl, has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a condition in which one struggles to identify themselves by their birth gender. She told the story of becoming a transgendered boy to a prominent LGBT website:
I never, ever, in a million years envisioned myself growing up to be a woman. I don’t think I thought of any alternatives, but I knew for sure that I was not going to grow up and be a woman. When puberty hit, my biggest struggle was not only feeling betrayed by my body, but also the increasing pressure to become a little lady.
It was around this age that my leg hair started growing in — and I did not want to shave it. I loved having leg hair; I thought it was cool! But, my classmates didn’t agree. My mother, of course, put a lot of pressure on me — because I was “blossoming into a young woman” and all that — to conform to feminine archetypes. That caused a lot of conflict in my family relationships. I was a very volatile, angry kid in that time period …
I was about 11 or 12 at the time. And, I knew I liked girls, but I’d never, ever, ever identified with the term “lesbian” — calling yourself a lesbian means asserting yourself as a woman, and I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to live in that gray area where I didn’t have to say that I was anything. So, the conflict started again. Apparently, being a lesbian doesn’t excuse you from shaving your legs.
I found out about the word “transgender” when I was watching YouTube. I clicked on somebody’s video, and he looked like a girl. Then, I watched another video from, like, two years later — he was a dude! And, you know, I was 12 and thinking … What did he just do? I want to do it!
“Gavin” recently won a federal court decision that could potentially allow her to use boys’ bathrooms at her school. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 2-1 opinion that she should be allowed to do so, ruling a school board decision that children should only use the bathroom that coincides with their birth sexes violated her civil rights under Title IX.
The case was remanded back to the trial court with instructions on how to proceed. In the meantime, “Gavin” will continue to use the bathroom in the school nurse’s office until the matter is resolved.
But she remains a girl, both biologically and physically. This is a key point that has been missed by many of the mainstream media reports of the case: she has not undergone “gender reassignment” surgery.
She merely “identifies” as a boy.
Many have suggested the court’s opinion will have a tidal wave effect over state laws that prohibit transgender public bathrooms. LGBT activists in North Carolina say their state’s new law addressing transgender bathrooms is similarly unconstitutional.
According to Lambda Legal and the ACLU of North Carolina:
Today’s ruling makes plain that North Carolina’s House Bill 2 violates Title IX by discriminating against transgender students and forcing them to use the wrong restroom at school. This mean-spirited law not only encourages discrimination and endangers transgender students—it puts at risk billions of dollars in federal funds that North Carolina receives for secondary and post-secondary schools. House Bill 2 exposes North Carolinians to discrimination and harm, is wreaking havoc on the state’s economy and reputation, and now more than ever, places the state’s federal education funding in jeopardy. We again call on Governor McCrory and the General Assembly to repeal House Bill 2 and replace it with full nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people.
But, in many ways, the case “Gavin” has brought to court reinforces many of the concerns parents and public officials have. According to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, a girl can go into a boys’ bathroom—or vice versa—merely because she “thinks” or “feels” she is a boy.
Or that she merely claims to be.
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