Parents Of Transgender Kids Request Meeting With President Trump

Parents of eight transgender children from across America want a meeting with President Trump, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and other key government officials sooner, rather than later.

As might be expected, at issue is the protections in schools for transgender children, specifically revolving around bathroom use. Prior to February 23, 2017, transgender children could make use of the washrooms that corresponded with their gender identity without fear of reprisal; this was a protection that the Obama administration put into place as part of Title IX, which states that there should be no sexual discrimination in schools. The Obama administration had extended those protections to the use of school washrooms. Many schools had allowed those students who identified as transgender or gender non-conforming to make use of a washroom that would have been deemed "unisex" and would feature a single, locking door.

Some students, such as Virginia's Gavin Grimm, noted that accessing such washrooms would often be inconvenient for the student, as they would be located at the opposite end of the school from where a student's class might be. As such, requests to use the washroom that corresponded with a student's gender identity were often made. Grimm, in fact, is currently waiting for the Supreme Court to hear his case regarding his use of the boys' washroom at his school in the Gloucester County School Board. The Supreme Court is to hear his case on March 28, and there is growing media attention about the decision the Supreme Court could make in the matter.

Under the Obama administration, transgender students had the right to use the washroom that corresponded with their gender identity, but once President Trump rescinded those federal protections, students had to either return to using the unisex washroom or they had to use the washroom that corresponded to the gender of their birth.

Parents of transgender kids want to try and set things back to what they deem right for their kids' sake.“Everyone needs to be protected in school, in their communities," said Ron Ford Jr., father of Ellie, his transgender daughter, and Ronnie, his son. Ellie identifies as transgender; she is one of many youngsters across the nation who are coming out at increasingly young ages. "Just because they rescinded the guidance … doesn’t meant that we all stop. We do not stop.”

DeShanna Neal homeschooled her transgender daughter for years out of fears for her safety in schools, not only because she is transgender, but because she is African American and transgender. Her daughter, now 13, hopes to attend high school next year. Neal noted that she never once expected that she'd have to fight for her daughter's human rights.

“I want them to understand that she belongs here," Neal said. "My daughter is a person, she’s an American. She wants to get an education just like anybody else.”

Mother Isabel Rose, whose infant son Samuel transitioned to Sadie at six years old, told First Daughter Ivanka Trump in an open letter that she believed that Ms. Trump would do as she herself has done in order to support her transitioning child.

"You would be greatly dismayed if you found out that the government chose to rescind protections for transgender students that allow them to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity instead of their anatomy," she wrote. "Like me, you would look at your ultra-feminine 8-year-old, standing on the street corner waiting for the school bus, her already-elegant head held high, pink bow quivering in the wind, and you would say to yourself, “What on earth will my little princess do if someone forces her to go to the bathroom with the boys? She’ll be mortified! She’ll be bullied! She’ll be scared."

No one from the Trump administration seems to have responded to the request for a meeting, as of yet.