This petition is to show support for full equal access for transgender youth to bathrooms within the Stillwater Public Schools district. Stillwater’s transgender youth are currently being targeted by adults within the district who, in their misunderstanding and fear of people that they don’t understand, are claiming that transgender children are somehow predatory or threatening to cisgender children in the district’s bathrooms.

With this petition, the signatories state the following: 

• Transgender youth are not a threat - transgender youth are not inherently violent or predatory to other students and pose no risk in gendered bathrooms.
• There is no trend of cisgender students crossdressing to attack students in the bathroom - equitable bathroom access has been legal in many states for more than a decade. Research in such areas has shown that police departments, school officials, and local authorities note no increase in assault in bathrooms. The leading national organizations combatting violence against women have signed a letter stating that these myths only further harm of trans people and have no basis in reality.
• All students are entitled to bathroom access consistent with their gender. Denying a student access to the bathroom can degrade both physical and emotional health. For example, students may develop urinary tract infections and experience increased psychological distress. Degraded mental and physical health can increase the risk of death by suicide. The negative outcomes from denial of bathroom access are preventable and, therefore, efforts to restrict bathroom access directly contradict current law and policy. Such efforts violate Title IX requirements around gender equity and Title II requirements around providing reasonable accommodations to alleviate or prevent the negative impact of the educational environment on student learning, educational access, and well-being.
• Restricting transgender students’ bathroom access only to gender-neutral locations puts transgender students at risk. While having access to gender-neutral restrooms can be useful, requiring transgender individuals to use a separate restroom from their peers can reenforce separation, alienation, and Othering of transgender students. Research has shown that such separation can raise the likelihood of transgender students being targeted for violence.

To the transgender community of Stillwater: we support you, and we are sorry that your rights are being debated.