Transgender people just need to pee

by Angela Lee, opinion editor

New guidelines require schools to allow transgender students to use the restroom and locker rooms that correspond to their chosen gender, and not the one written on their birth certificate.

By invoking the sex discrimination law known as, Title IX, the rules carry with them the threat of federal enforcement—including a loss of federal education funds. These new federal rules have sparked controversy, with members from the LGBTQIA+ Community still fighting to be given the rights that should come naturally.

However, according to USA Today, “a number of state-level Republican officials have called the move federal overreach that violates the right of each state to determine education policy.”

“We said it is our view that you should treat these kids with dignity,” President Barack Obama said in a recent interview with USA Today.

But when it comes to LGBTQIA+ people, of course, it is never that easy.

“It shouldn’t be anyone else’s concern which bathroom transgender people use. They’re people just like you, and at the end of the day they’re using it to use it. Trust that they know themselves better than you know them, and if you have to say something, make sure it’s nice,” junior Melanie Liapis said.

The school law about transgender bathrooms should have been passed.

It is a sign of change in favor of the people who feel like their natural human rights do not apply to them. This step, while it may seem small to others, is huge to transgender people who feel that their rights have been violated and that they don’t belong.

They have lived for years in the dark, and this small push may be what the world needs to start becoming more open-minded and accepting.

Transgender people just need to pee, and it’s about time that people start realizing that.

“I can see why people wouldn’t want transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender they most identify with. It comes from an irrational fear that they’re different, that they want something more. This world is just wary to change,” junior Bella Lassus said.

In an article written by the Rasmussen Reports, Americans in 2016 are starting to become more willing to let transgender people use the bathrooms they prefer, but even so, most adults with school-age children still are opposed. 55% of those with elementary and secondary school age children oppose the Obama administration’s latest order, for fear or for simple dislike of the idea of a transgendered youngster in a bathroom with their own children.

This uneasiness and distrust may stem from different things in different people.

A survey shows that 33% of American adults support the decision to let transgender people use the bathroom of the gender they identify most with. However, 51% oppose allowing transgender students to use the bathrooms of the opposite biological sex, and 16% are undecided.

This makes the majority of America’s parents not in favor of this newly enacted law, but that doesn’t mean the entire LGBTQIA+ Community has given up yet.

Transgender people just need to pee, and as the years go on, they gain more and more support from a world that is slowly beginning to understand that they are no different from anybody else.

The school law about transgender bathrooms should have, undoubtedly, been passed.

Little by little, people are beginning to give voice to members of the LGBTQIA+ community, especially the ones that have been more oppressed than others.

Now that the world is finally giving the community a chance to speak, perhaps they would also be more willing to listen.