The county’s legislation prohibiting transgender individuals from using restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identities was overturned by the new Democratic majority on the Perkiomen Valley school board on Monday, overturning a Republican-imposed ban several weeks before.
Many community members with LGBTQ family and friends praised the decision, which was approved 6–3. One parent claimed that her child, who is genderqueer, hadn’t gone to school since the fall and that the controversy, which resulted in a number of contentious school board meetings and an out-of-school student walkout in favor of the policy, “destroyed” their senior year.
According to the parent, Shona McGee, “Quit Trans” stickers were put on speed signs all over school the day of the walkout. “It’s created a hostile learning environment for our children,” she said. “Yet that’s what you’re asking for my child, even though I don’t think any of you would want this for your child.”
However, the vote incited outrage from others who claimed the board was endangering girls, raising the possibility of boys using girls’ restrooms and expressing concerns about transgender people.
After the vote, Heidi Brown, a Republican who unsuccessfully ran for the school board, told the committee that “Satan has come for our children.” “Kids dancing around, men dressed as women in very provocative clothing, being cheered on,” is what is taking place. That will be present in our restrooms.
The committee was informed by Skippack Township resident Matthew Barber that he would now need to figure out how to tell his sons that “there will be guys in the restroom with them.”
Barber remarked, “I hope every freaking family out there sues this school.” “I can’t wait until children are attacked; that will happen, and then they will be able to hold each and every one of you accountable.”
The decision, according to board members who voted to revoke the legislation, did not imply that kids were permitted to use women’s restrooms. Trans people are male. Trans women are women, Tammy Campli remarked, adding that students can’t use a unique identity to gain access to one restroom because teachers and staff are aware of which learners “consistently assert themselves” as boys or girls.
They also pointed out that the vote didn’t signal a significant shift in district policy because, prior to October, the district had allowed transgender students to use restrooms that matched their gender identities, largely without any apparent controversy.
However, controversy erupted this fall after a gentleman posted on social media that his daughter was upset when she went to the high school’s girls’ restroom and thought there was another boy in it. Members of the Republican board expressed their alarm at learning that the administration had given transgender students complete access to restrooms.
The board then passed a rule stating that bedrooms and locker rooms for multiple users may be classified according to “biological sex,” which is defined as based on the “chromosomal structure and biology at birth” of the student.
The legislation, according to its detractors, marginalized transgender and nonbinary individuals based on false concerns. They also claimed that it was unlawful, citing a 2018 federal appeals court decision that upheld the Boyertown Area School District’s legislation allowing transgender students to apply restrooms that matched their gender identities.
The claim that the plan violated the privacy rights of transgender students was rejected by the court in that case. According to Brian Subers, the attorney for Perkiomen Valley, granting transgender students access to single-user restrooms wasn’t a solution and would “significantly undermine” their physical and psychological well-being.
On Monday, some panel members cited that choice. Robert Liggett stated, “I must defend the area from the lawsuits we would likely lose.”
We “became an anomaly” when the legislation was passed in October, according to Liggett. “This area needs to be brought back to normalcy.”
Last year, a number of local regions, including Perkiomen Valley, passed laws restricting trans kids. Comparable to Perkiomen Valley, Bucks County’s Pennridge School District implemented a toilet policy that prohibited transgender individuals from participating in sports clubs that matched their gender identities. A similar sport scheme was also adopted by Central Bucks.
In November’s votes, those districts, like Perkiomen Valley, even switched to Democratic control. Among its first moves, the new Central Bucks panel suspended the transgender athlete plan.
However, despite community users circulating a complaint in favor of the state’s plan, the poll did not end the conflict in Perkiomen Valley. One lady expressed concern that the district might experience a similar incident, such as the one that attracted national attention in Loudoun County, Virginia, in which an unidentified male student sexually assaulted another female student in the restroom.
Even though the policy that was rescinded didn’t address participation in athletic programs, proponents expressed greater concern about the implications of including transgender students, including the possibility that boys would replace girls on sports teams.
Todd McKinney, a board member who voted to revoke the scheme,
claimed that society has erred when it refuses to recognize people’s identity.
According to what I’ve heard now, some people believe that the majority is often correct. McKinney, a Black man, said this. “I’d still be enslaved if that were the case.”
