Vica Steel (screen grab)

US — Madison, Wisconsin. In January 2020, a male teacher penned an open letter in Our Lives, an LGBT Madison newsletter, accusing the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) of transphobia because the district encouraged adult staff to use staff washrooms, not those designated for children. Vica Steel who was previously named Mark Busenbark and currently identifies as a woman, wants to continue using the girls’ washroom directly across from the science teacher’s second-floor classroom, rather than an “all-gender” bathroom further away on the first floor.

Vica Steel identifies as a woman, is an elementary school teacher & has been using the school's girls' (STUDENTS') bathrooms rather than the teachers' bathrooms. Vica says it is their right to use the bathrooms alongside the unaccompanied kindergarten girls at the school. pic.twitter.com/ynTuvaFt8O — Skeptical Mom (@Skeptical_Mom) February 21, 2020

According to MMSD spokesperson Tim LeMonds,

An Allis parent, (whose) child reported feeling uncomfortable using a children’s bathroom while an adult staff member was also using that same bathroom, contacted MMSD central office to inquire about what district practice was regarding adults using children’s bathrooms

Students at Frank Allis Elementary School (courtesy: school Facebook page)

While staff members are able to use adult washrooms in the school “based on the gender with which they identify”, LeMonds indicated it is a best practice for adults to use a different bathroom than students “for safety purposes”.

In Steel’s open letter, the teacher erroneously counters that “there has never been a case of a transgender woman endangering or attacking or doing anything in her time in the bathroom, except using it for peeing and adjusting make-up and doing what every other woman does”. It is unclear what led Steel to make this assertion, given the numerous instances of assaults in women’s washrooms and change rooms by males identifying as women (for example, Katie Dolatowski and Laverne Waskahat).

When asked about Steel’s statement about women only using the bathroom “for peeing and adjusting make-up”, LeMonds stated that this view represents Steel’s “personal experience as a transgender woman.”

Steel Previously Drew Parents’ Ire

In 2019, Steel, unbeknownst to parents, came out as “non-binary” via a video shared with the K-5th grade students at Frank Allis Elementary School, where Steel teaches. From a book called “They Call Me Mix”, State read “I am not a boy. I am not just a girl. I am both!”, and then requested students use “they/them/their” pronouns:

And now, let me introduce myself, anew…. I am going to take my wife, Stella Steel’s last name, and I am going to use, not mister, not miss, but ‘mix.’ So you can call me, ‘Mix Steel.’.. And for my pronouns, you can call me ‘they,’ ‘them,’ and ‘their.’

Steel also asserted that those who disagree were motivated by “fear” and “hate”. Upon learning of what had transpired at the school, parents complained, and Liberty Counsel, a Christian ministry, asked the school district to provide public records – i.e. “any emails, flyers, notes, text messages and other district communications asking parental permission to show the ‘coming out’ video to students.” In its letter to the district, Liberty Counsel also stated that the teacher’s action “appears to violate several district policies, as well as the constitutional prohibition against schools enforcing any kind of ‘orthodoxy’.” It further said that Steel “has no legal authority to force students to call him ‘Mx.,’ nor to manipulate them with the idea that they must obey him or be seen as ‘disrespectful’ or ‘hateful’ or ‘not loving.”

While Steel’s gender identify initially appeared to fluctuate, Steel began identifying as “an open and out transgender woman’ a short while ago, coinciding with Steel’s recent ventures into the school girls’ bathroom.

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