A Kiwi teenager has spoken out about her school's decision to allow a transgender student to use the girls' bathrooms, saying it was made without consultation and her rights were overlooked. In a video the girl, known only as Laura, says the management's decision to allow a transgender teenager, who was born male but identifies as female, to attend the all-girls' school last year shocked her.
School leadership initially told the transgender student she could use the gender-neutral toilets, but she successfully campaigned to access the girls' halfway through the school year. Laura said it was then that she spoke to the school's management, voicing her concerns for her and other students' safety. There are already gender-neutral toilets in the school. And knowing that there could be a guy that could walk in, it's a little bit terrifying to think about that.
Laura says her concerns fell on deaf ears, and the principal told her if she had a problem with being in the same toilet block as the other student, she could use the unisex toilets herself. I'm at an all-girls' school with these girls' bathrooms and you're telling me if I don't want to use them I can go to a unisex toilet? It really doesn't. Lynda Whitehead, spokesperson for Tranzaction, an advocacy organisation for transgender people, was shocked when watching the video.
Transgender people do not go around harassing anybody. They don't go into a bathroom and use them for any other reason than anyone else," Whitehead said. Toni Duder, spokesperson for RainbowYOUTH, said no one should have to get permission from others to use public toilets of their preferred gender identity.
Laura's mother also voices her opinion in the video, which lobby group Family First produced as part of a campaign to bar transgender females from using girls' and women's' facilities such as toilets and changing rooms. Laura's mother says the school's claims that it considered the rights of all its students before making the decision are "really incorrect". They haven't respected their thoughts on the matter. There's over girls. They also have a right to have a voice.
