Transgender Issues In The Classroom

Transgender rights have been a long political and social movement with recent numerous conflicts occurring nationwide. The concept of being transgender is defined as identifying as a gender that differs from a person’s assigned sex at birth. This concept has not been fully recognized by all members of society, and as a result, transgender people have been oppressed in various situations, one of which is being forbidden from using their preferred restroom of choice in public areas. This issue of being banned from entering restrooms involves the political concept of political equality, which is defined as the principle that each person carries equal weight in the conduct of the public business (Greenberg, 2018, p. 7). In other words, every person

Marimow from The Washington Post, published on March 13, 2018. The article describes a court case in which the ruling went in favor of a transgender student’s want to use both the locker room and restrooms of his gender. Max Brennan, the transgender student, was previously blocked from doing so, due to his high school’s policy. However, according to District Judge George L. Russell III, the policy goes against both the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and Maryland’s constitution (Marimow). Marimow, the author of this article, has been with The Washington Post since 2005 and has covered state government and politics in California, New Hampshire, and Maryland. She presents the subject of the article quite objectively and also provides the recent political background behind the political issue of transgender rights as well. The issue of transgender rights and restrooms is critical because it involves a person’s right to exist in a public space, making it a civil rights issue that would enforce the country’s political equality if solved

The arguments that were held by the school were also claimed to be backed by the Equal Protection Clause: “Attorneys for the school board said the policy does not violate the Equal Protection Clause because it treated Brennan like every other student, requiring him to use the locker room of his birth sex” (Marimow, 2018). However, this argument is not very valid due to how it does not properly acknowledge Brennan’s gender and how the school board very openly prevented Brennan from expressing his gender by enforcing the policy. Restricting Brennan from living as a person of his correct gender is the entire reason why the case involves political equality and civil rights. Currently, transgender rights are being disputed due to recent federal policies being enforced with the change in presidency, prohibiting transgender people from joining the military or using public restrooms. In the ruling, Russell noted that the courts have had to step in to stop enforcement of federal policies that violate the rights of transgender people (Marimow, 2018). Federal policies should not be violating the ideologies that come from the framework of the government itself. While civil rights will never entirely be given or protected, enforcing federal policies that take steps backward should never be a chosen course of