Transgender first-grader wins civil rights suit after girls’ bathroom ban

http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/24/transgender-first-grader-wins-civil-rights-suit-after-girls-bathroom-ban/


The Colorado Civil Rights Division has decided in favor of the transgender first-grader who had been prohibited from using the girls’ bathroom at a public elementary school.
The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, which filed the complaint on behalf of the first-grader’s family, announced the ruling on Sunday, reports Denver FOX affiliate KDVR.

The student, Coy Mathis, was born biologically male but wears girls’ clothes all the time. The six-year-old had also been using the girls’ bathroom at Eagleside Elementary in Fountain, Colorado near Colorado Springs.

In December, the school banned Coy from using the girls’ bathroom. http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/28/school-district-bans-transgender-first-grader-from-using-girls-bathroom/

The new policy was for Coy to use either the boys’ bathroom, a teacher’s lounge bathroom or the nurse’s bathroom. At the time, the Mathis family responded by taking Coy out of school .  The ruling by the state’s civil rights division, which enforces anti-discrimination laws, decreed that Mathis was a victim of illegal discrimination.

Division director Steven Chavez pronounced that a policy directing Coy to “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,” according to The New York Times.

The decision mentioned the latest research on transgender issues, adds KDVR. “Compartmentalizing a child as a boy or a girl solely based on their visible anatomy,” Chavez wrote, “is a simplistic approach to a difficult and complex issue.”

“The parents of Coy Mathis have filed a charge of discrimination with the Colorado division of Civil Rights,” part of the statement said. “They have chosen to publicize this matter by appearing on a nationally televised show with their child, sharing their point of view with national and local media, and holding a public press conference to announce the filing of the charge. The District firmly believes it has acted reasonably and fairly with respect to this issue.”  (The nationally televised show was “Katie,” a syndicated talk show hosted by journalist Katie Couric.)  School officials are concerned about what will happen to the child later on — in middle school and high school — when gender and sexuality will be more important to all the other students, KOAA says.

At the press conference, Kathryn Mathis told reporters that Coy began to identify as a girl “as soon as she could express herself.” She described Coy as restless and generally miserable before the parents decided to permit the transgender child to dress like a girl and act like a girl.

“We couldn’t get her to leave the house, go the playground, play with friends,” Mathis said, according to KMGH. “She would break down crying. She was so deeply unhappy and a three-year-old or four-year-old shouldn’t be that unhappy and that was when we sought professional help.”

Coy Mathis is a triplet (along with a brother, Max, and a sister, Lilly). There are two other siblings as well, one older and one younger. Since the school district changed its policy, the family has taken Mathis out of school. The Coy Mathis saga is the first-ever legal challenge under Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act of a transgender person’s ability to use the bathroom assigned to a particular gender.