Kathy Halbrooks

Much, if not most, of what we consider masculine or feminine is a social construct.

Who has commanded that gender is fused with physical anatomy? We have.

People may have bodies that are one sex and hearts and minds that are another.

Bills that are written to target transgender students are being proposed around the country. These bills are written to discriminate against and harass the transgender community and are in these cases directed at children. Many bills, including the one proposed in Tennessee, want to force students to use the bathroom of the sex that is listed on their original birth certificates.

Sex is assigned at birth when medical personnel see a baby’s genitalia: Most of the time, the child is deemed to be male or female and is sent home with parents. Gender Spectrum is an organization that has been formed to “understand and address concepts of gender identity and gender expression. Gender can be detrimental to any young person that does not fit neatly into these categories.” Gender Spectrum makes the important point that “biological sex and gender are different; gender is not inherently nor solely connected to one’s physical anatomy.”

Much, if not most, of what we consider masculine or feminine is a social construct. People who accept social constructs think of them as natural, but they often do not signify reality. For many years we have dressed baby girls in pink and baby boys in blue. This custom is fairly recent. In an article printed in 1918, the trade publication Earnshaw's Infants’ Department stated, "The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl."

Tennessee lawmakers to consider transgender bathroom bill

Who decides whether boys wear blue or girls wear pink? We do — arbitrarily. Who has commanded that gender is fused with physical anatomy? We have. And we continue to declare this when study after study is showing it isn’t true.

People who don’t fit neatly into our binary (male or female) system may have bodies that are one sex and hearts and minds that are another. They may be gender nonconforming, which means their gender expression doesn’t fit our society’s decrees of what is masculine or feminine. What happens to the boy who likes pink or the girl who likes blue? The boy who likes to wear a skirt or the girl who wants to play football? The boy who puts on eyeliner or the girl who shaves her head? Often they are harassed, bullied or physically assaulted. Why? Simply because they have different ways of expressing their tastes and talents than the majority of people have judged to be acceptable. Whom are they hurting? Nobody.

A recent study showed that “young transgender children allowed to live openly as the gender they identify with fared as well psychologically as other kids… .” But how can a child grow into a happy, healthy adult when they live in a society that discriminates against people like them in employment, housing and affordable health care? In a society in which families and friends reject people like them when they come out?

There are no recorded instances of transgender students causing any trouble when they use a restroom that corresponds with their gender identity. There is no evidence that having male and female restrooms is safer for cisgender women. (Cisgender people’s gender experiences match the sex they were assigned at birth.)

But there IS a startling statistic that shows that 41 percent of people who are transgender have attempted suicide.

If this disconcerting figure is not far, far more important than publicly policing people’s most basic bodily functions, then we should be ashamed of ourselves.

Kathy Halbrooks is president of PFLAG Nashville and Tennessee PFLAG coordinator.