The following letter was published in The New York Times on May 16, 2016.
Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
To the Editor:
Re “U.S. Issues Notice on Students Who Are Transgender” (front page, May 13): The Obama administration’s bold directive to public schools outlining their obligations under federal law to protect transgender students puts forth a laudable and reasonable approach to recognizing the dignity and well-being of all students with practical and concrete guidance for educators and schools.
Arguments that ensuring appropriate bathroom access to transgender students infringes on the rights of other students are no different than the arguments made when bathrooms and other venues marked “for colored only” were integrated in the 1960s. Those arguments are just as false today as they were then.
As Vanita Gupta, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division,made clear last week: Transgender women are women and transgender men are men. This directive is a common-sense approach, not to mention entirely consistent with well-settled discrimination case law.
Sincerely,
Seth M. Marnin
Vice President, Civil Rights