A six-year-old boy in the US state of Colorado has won the right to use the girls’ toilets at school because he is transsexual.
Meanwhile, in a similar case in Australia, a nine-year-old boy has also won the right to use the girls’ toilets.
And new laws in California mean transsexual students can choose to join either girls’ or boys’ sports teams at school.
Discrimination
In Colorado, the parents of six-year-old Coy Matthis took their son’s school to a civil rights panel, claiming it was discrimination to disallow their son from using the bathroom of the gender with which he identifies.
In December 2012 school officials said Coy must use the boys’ toilets or the staff bathrooms.
The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund assisted the Matthis’ case and welcomed the decision.
Message
Executive Director Michael Silverman said the ruling sent out a clear message to schools that transgender students must be treated equally in schools.
In southeast Queensland Australia, a nine-year-old boy has been told by the region’s Education department that he can use the girls’ toilets and join girls’ sports teams at his primary school.
His mother had planned to lodge a gender identity discrimination complaint after teachers said the child must use a unisex toilet when he came to school dressed as a girl at the start of the year.
Compete
Now Education Queensland North Coast regional director Colin Allen-Waters has said the student can use the female toilets and compete in girls’ sports events.
Politicians in California have passed a controversial Bill which would allow students to access bathrooms and changing rooms of the gender they have chosen.
The legislation, which must now be signed into law by the State’s Governor Jerry Brown, would also mean transgender students can choose a sports team of the gender with which they identify.
The proposals have come under fire from critics who say students may exploit the new law.