O-blog-dee-o-blog-da

Posted By Melanie Nathan, March 26, 2015.

The Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF) denounces a Nevada bill singling out transgender students for discrimination. Introduced by state lawmaker Vicki Dooling, Assembly Bill 375 would prohibit transgender students in public schools from using bathrooms and locker rooms that match who they are as boys and girls.

The bill aims to roll back anti-discrimination protections adopted by Nevada legislators in 2011. It carves out a special exemption for students from Nevada’s anti-discrimination law which otherwise protects transgender people from discrimination in public accommodations, including bathrooms. It comes on the heels of similar bills introduced in Texas, Kentucky and Minnesota.

Statement from TLDEF Executive Director Michael Silverman

“After celebrating the failure of a Kentucky bill that singled out transgender students for discrimination, we are extremely disappointed to see this harmful legislation introduced in Nevada. This bill is illegal and violates Title IX’s anti-discrimination provisions as interpreted by the United States Departments of Justice and Education.

“Transgender students already face significant challenges just trying to live their lives authentically, often encountering a hostile school environment simply because of who they are. Denying these students the ability to use a bathroom that matches who they are compromises their safety and jeopardizes their well-being in school.

“We are alarmed by this effort to limit Nevada’s statewide law protecting transgender people by targeting the State’s students. Like pending bills in Texas and Minnesota, this bill would put transgender students in harm’s way. All of these anti-transgender bills now under consideration should fail.”