Here & Now

President Of Wisconsin Family Action On School Bathroom Bill

Frederica Freyberg:

The bill which requires school boards to designate school restrooms and locker rooms for the exclusive use of only one gender, would make Wisconsin the first state in the nation to prohibit transgender students from using the facilities assigned to the gender with which they identify. Wisconsin Family Action President Julaine Appling favors the bill. She joins us now from Milwaukee. Julaine, thanks very much for being here.

Julaine Appling:

Thank you for the opportunity.

Frederica Freyberg:

Why is this bill needed in your mind?

Julaine Appling:

Well, we have been contacted over the last year and a half through our organization by numerous concerned citizens, parents, grandparents, people who are in school districts around the state who are alarmed at the policies their local school boards are considering and most of them have passed. Some 60 have passed policies that allow transgender students to basically as you said, use the restroom, locker rooms and changing room facilities in the public schools according to gender they identify with. And we believe that all students privacy rights should be protected not just certain subset of students. And so, because the school districts and apparently — I honestly believe it’s a very much of an uphill battle for citizens to push back against a school district in this way. This bill is important to get done at the state level because it doesn’t matter whether you live in Menasha or Janesville or Beloit or Eagle River or Hudson or wherever, the privacy rights of students are the same all over the state.

Frederica Freyberg:

So, describe specifically what the concerns are or fears are of transgender students using the facilities of the gender with which they identify.

Julaine Appling:

In many of these school districts where they've implemented these policies already. And I’ve seen the policies. This isn't my imagination. The students don’t have to be dressed any differently in keeping with a gender they're identifying with. So a boy who looks very much like a boy and who is dressed like a boy can go into a girl’s locker room, changing room, restroom, and you know there’s no way that the girls know this person is necessarily identifying with a different gender or vice-versa. And we believe that especially with the majority of students in our public schools are minors that this is inappropriate violation of their privacy rights. And you know, it’s — if there’s any place in a school or any kind of public setting where a person, particularly a student, should feel safe it’s in the privacy of a restroom or locker room or changing room. And you know this is just a situation that's not wholesome. It’s not in the best interest of all the students and I want to point out that this bill especially as amended by authors would allow any students for any reason not because they're transgender only but for any other reason to be able to request to use a separate single use facility as well. That’s very important. There is an accommodation in this bill.

Frederica Freyberg:

In fact I was going to ask you about that accommodation as you say it would allow for people to use a separate changing room but is that in itself kind of stigmatizing to a child or student kind of singling them out?

Julaine Appling:

I don’t think so. I think especially since the bill has been amended to allow any student who wants to make that request of the school district. It could be for any reason. It doesn’t have to be because they’re having gender confusion but because maybe they had surgery or whatever. They've got all kind of issues and you know I think probably everybody who has gone thru a school and had to go gym has understood that the locker room and changing room and all that can be an interesting place. Let’s just leave it at that. And all kinds of things happen. Because of the breath of who is allowed to make this request I don’t think it’s singling out at all. Here’s another thing to consider, according to not our numbers but according to studies that have been done by those who are very favorable to LGBTQ issues, three tenths of one% of people in the adult population would identify as transgender. That means if you put that into a school setting that we are putting 99.7% of the students in a kind of inconvenient, unwholesome you know touchy situation at best. Situation for that three tenths of one percent and the argument that the students who are uncomfortable with that but who fall in that larger category should go somewhere else, I think that’s down right discriminating myself.

Frederica Freyberg:

Why not, though, let local school districts make their own decisions as opposed to having this kind of from the state level?

Julaine Appling:

I know that seems a bit broad and kind of away from what I typically am advocating for. I’m a former school board member and I certainly like local control and I think generally speaking that’s the best way to go. However as I said, students privacy rights aren't restricted to any particular geographic location. The constitutional privacy rights that these students have within the confines of school go all over the state, all over the country and we believe that — by the way school districts are really wrestling with this and we don’t believe that Menasha should come up with one version and Janesville with another version and Watertown with another version and Madison with its own version and on and on and on. This is a way to handle it in a very nondiscriminating way to protect privacy rights of all students.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Thank you very much.

Julaine Appling:

Thank you.