Amber Nichols-Buckley

Guest Columnist

Though I am disappointed that Mississippi Superintendent of Education Carey Wright crumbled under political pressure and rescinded President Obama’s directive, which calls for schools to immediately allow transgender students to use the restroom of their choice, I can understand why she did it.

The vitriol, mostly derived from fear of the unknown, though often shoddily justified by people’s personal religious “beliefs,” is rampant in conversations and on both social media and talk radio. Many editorials are riddled with fear-mongering, as columnists claim our daughters will be subject to grown men in public restrooms and that this law gives sexual predators free reign. Any and everything is being said to distract people from the inspiration behind the president’s actions: Transgender students have and will continue to suffer tremendous amounts of abuse until this directive is supported and implemented by those whose job it is to protect students.

I am a straight, Christian, married mother. I am also a teacher. And I find no objection, moral or otherwise, in supporting a directive that would allow students to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity. I have witnessed the brutal bullying that LGBT youth have to endure, from their peers, from their parents, even, at times, from their teachers, the people we trust most to provide safety and security for our children.

Currently around 75 percent of transgender students do not feel safe at school. More than 50 percent of transgender students will try to kill themselves before their 20th birthday. These students deserve our protection. We are the adults, yet we are acting like children.

Recently, I read an argument where the author stated, “For any parents who may be reading this and have a daughter in the eighth grade, the guideline means teenage boys go into in the restroom with your little girl. For you fathers who were once teenage boys, is that what you want?”

I find this disturbing on a number of levels. The first is that it automatically equates a transgender individual with a sexual predator. This is despicable and is certainly a moral outrage. Secondly, I am disturbed at the latter argument — that there are swarms of teenage boys who will pretend to be transgender simply to commit sex crimes in bathrooms.

If this is the case, then perhaps we in the heterosexual community have a lesson to learn here: It’s time to teach our students, boys and girls alike, to have respect for one another. We have to teach all of our children to treat others with the dignity they deserve as human beings.

That’s exactly what this directive seeks to do.

I have a 5-year-old daughter. I am not afraid of a society that allows people to use inclusive restrooms. I am afraid of a society that intentionally refuses to feel empathy for the vulnerable and misunderstood, often citing religion as justification. I am afraid of a society that dehumanizes individuals of difference.

Amber Nichols-Buckley teaches in the Department of Writing & Rhetoric at the University of Mississippi. Contact her at nicholsbuckley@gmail.com or at asnichol@olemiss.edu.