A Madisonville North Hopkins County High School transgender student is working on a petition to allow him to use the bathroom he chooses instead of the handicap one made available for those who identify as transgender.
School officials haven’t yet received the petition, but say they’ll seek legal guidance although they aren’t aware of any laws regulating bathroom use.
Meanwhile State Senator C.B. Embry filed a bill this month requiring students use the restroom corresponding to their anatomical gender.
Fairness Campaign Director Chris Hartman says the bill comes after a Louisville high school allowed a transgender girl to use the women’s restroom and locker room, which he says is the best option.
“When we force a trans student to use a private restroom, a handicap facility, what that does is it says you are so different that we don’t know how to accommodate you other than to isolate you and force you to use this restroom that’s all yours,” Hartman said.
Embry filed the bill after the Kentucky Family Foundation approached him with a draft of it.
He says the measure is unlikely to move forward in the short legislative session.
“The best thing that could happen would be for a committee to give consideration to it, and they would hear people from both sides of the issue,” Embry said. “They would be given the chance to make their case and once that was done there would be a better understanding of the issue by everyone, and that would be a good thing.”
Hartman with the Fairness Campaign says if the bill were to pass it would be harmful for transgender students, isolating them in a way that is unnecessary.
“Learning institutions are about...making certain that kids get to go to school, absorb the information that they need without worrying about where they pee. Let kids pee in peace.”