WILLIAMSVILLE -- Any time he approached the bathroom he was told he should use at Williamsville High School, Alex McCray says he felt uneasy. Eventually, he'd had enough and decided to do something about it.

“It made me feel like I was being treated differently and ostracized,” McCray said.

McCray, a transgender student who was born with female anatomy but identifies as a male, recently resolved a complaint he filed in October with the Illinois Department of Human Rights. He did so with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and its lawyers from Chicago representing him.

The agreement guarantees that McCray, a senior at Williamsville High School, and other transgender students will have equal access to gender-appropriate restroom and locker room facilities at the school, meaning they can use the facilities of the gender they identify with.

In addition, the agreement calls for the Williamsville School District to adopt a comprehensive policy that creates a model for addressing the needs of students who are transgender.

School Superintendent David Root said the district never intended to do anything where a student felt discriminated against and was simply trying to come up with a solution that made everyone feel safe and comfortable.

He also noted that other transgender students had come through the district and preferred to use a unisex bathroom.

“We thought it was an acceptable alternative,” he said.

According to the Intersex Society of North America, people who identify as transgender or transsexual are usually people who are born with typical male or female anatomies but feel as though they’ve been born into the “wrong body.” For example, a person who identifies as transgender or transsexual may have typical female anatomy but feel like a male and seek to become male by taking hormones or electing to have sex-reassignment surgeries.

What bathroom transgender students should use at school has become a hot-button issue across the country, with state legislatures around the U.S. having in recent months debated proposals that would force individuals to use the bathroom that corresponds with the sex listed on their birth certificate.

The governor of North Carolina signed such a bill in late March, and Mississippi has passed a related law that critics say allows discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Education found that a suburban Chicago school district was in violation of federal law for denying a student who is transgender access to a gender-appropriate locker room.

In the central Illinois case, both the ACLU of Illinois and Root said Tuesday that an agreement was reached amicably.

The ACLU credited a different approach in leadership in Williamsville for making what could have been an ugly public wrangling into a positive agreement.

“(Williamsville) school district’s quick and respectful response should be a model for other districts in Illinois and elsewhere,” John Knight, LGBT project director for the ACLU of Illinois, said in a statement.

McCray said school officials directed him early on in high school to use a single-occupant, unisex restroom rather than the restroom used by boys in his class.

McCray, 18, explained that he was assigned female at birth, but now identifies as a man. He made the transition, including taking hormones, his sophomore year.

When he was told to use the separate bathroom, McCray said, he initially went along with it because he felt more comfortable. But as he got older and more mature, he decided he wanted to use the boys bathroom at school because that’s what he uses in public.

McCray eventually protested and refused to use the designated bathroom because he said he felt it stigmatized him. He decided to file the complaint to force a change, he said.

“It was so weird that I had to switch over at school,” McCray said. “Other students knew who that bathroom was for."

Root said issues with transgender students using bathrooms are relatively new, and that the state of Illinois doesn’t have any rules to guide schools on how to handle the situation. He did say he received some guidance from the Illinois Association of School Boards, though that agency also has no formal policy on the matter.

In response to the complaint, the district has updated its policies, Root said, adding that steps were already being taken to provide professional development for teachers on how to treat transgender students before the complaint was filed.

“We never were interested in fighting this,” Root said. “We just said, ‘Tell us what we need to do to help the student.'”

McCray said he is glad the issue got resolved and he hopes future transgender students in the Williamsville-Sherman School District don’t have to endure any of the pain he went through.

“I’m very happy with the policy that came out because of this,” he said. “I think it’s a big change the school had to go through, and I think they handled it well.”

— Contact Jason Nevel: 788-1521, jason.nevel@sj-r.com, twitter.com/JasonNevelSJR.