After being told they couldn’t use any bathroom in their high school other than the nurse’s office, Aimes Dobbins, now a senior at IU, found themselves in a dilemma.
Dobbins, a trans-masculine, non-binary individual who uses they/them pronouns had shown up to school early and needed to use the restroom. However, they were so early to school the nurse hadn’t shown up yet and no one had the ability to open the office.
Dobbins was trying to follow the rules and therefore didn’t use the restrooms for other students. Dobbins instead asked to use the single-occupancy bathrooms reserved for faculty and staff, but was initially refused.
“I’m very lucky that I found someone who was an ally who let me use one of the staff bathrooms,” Dobbins said. “I don’t know what it’s like at my high school now, but I know of one person facing similar issues and it doesn’t sound like anything changed.”
Last week, President Obama issued a statement and guidelines for all public schools regarding transgender bathroom use across the country.
In an IU press release IU School of Education Professor Suzanne Eckes said these guidelines will give greater clarity to educators.
“When we compartmentalize boys and girls based on their anatomy, that’s taking a very simplified approach to a much more nuanced issue,” Eckes said in the release. “Gender runs much deeper than that.”
Though the statement doesn’t have any legal force, it did warn schools that failure to comply could result in loss of federal funding. Dobbins referenced Title IX as a way to monitor transgender discrimination since gender protections are included for bathrooms and locker rooms in the wording.
Though Dobbins said they haven’t been denied access to any bathrooms on campus they still think a statement from President Michael McRobbie or Provost Lauren Robel is needed to fight back against the negative rhetoric currently trending in the nation.
Dobbins said they think much of the hatred toward trans individuals is coming out of misunderstanding. They said the belief trans women are really just men in women’s clothing is the main reason so many families don’t want trans people to have bathroom choice.
“You know, I wouldn’t want a man in the women’s bathroom either, but a trans woman is not a man,” Dobbins said. “I’m sick and tired of people stating false information as facts.”
Solutions aren’t simple though. Protecting trans peoples’ choice in bathroom isn’t always what is needed by trans people, Dobbins said.
Some people, like Dobbins, don’t fully identify as either male or female so the choice between the two bathrooms is unsatisfactory. Rather, more single-occupancy bathrooms are a better solution, Dobbins said.
“I don’t feel comfortable in either or,” Dobbins said. “I’m looked at as a creep in the women’s restroom and in the men’s if they question it you can see this look of being uncomfortable.”
They said this issue also expands to families who also need space and recently noticed a mother with two young sons who was confused where to change at the SRSC.
Additionally, single-occupancy bathrooms could prevent other crimes. Dobbins said they were once followed into a bathroom and harassed for being trans. A single-occupancy bathroom could have provided more protection, Dobbins said.
Eckes said in the release despite opposition school leaders should stand behind the Obama administration’s guidance and protect the rights of transgender students.
“The best thing right now would be for McRobbie or Robel to come out and say something in support of transgender people,” Dobbins said. “Especially in this time of so much negativity it would be very positive in what feels like a state of emergency for trans people.”
