As a parent, you have to know when to stand up for your kid. That's exactly why a family in Colorado is recently filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of their 6-year-old transgender child, Coy Mathis. Mathis' parents are seeking legal action after their daughter's school reportedly banned her from using the girls' bathroom.
Mathis was born male, but has identified as a female since an early age. For the past year, the first-grader has been using the girls' bathroom at her elementary school in Denver. But apparently, the school district changed its policy in December and now officials are ordering the young child to use either the boys' bathroom, a staff bathroom or the school nurse's bathroom. Right, because that's not alienating at all.
Mathis parents' say they have never had any issues with other parents or students about their child's gender in the previous years at the school and don't understand why it's a problem now. Since filing the complaint, they have withdrawn Mathis from the school but hope to return to class as soon as possible. Their case is the first to use Colorado's Anti-Discrimination Act to challenge the restriction on a transgender person's bathroom use.
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"You see a little girl walk into the boys' bathroom, that's setting her up in an unsafe situation. Or you see her having to walk quite a ways from her classroom to the adult staff bathrooms or the nurse's restroom and you're singling her out when you do that," said mother Kathryn Mathis.
I know this is a tricky situation but personally, I have to agree with the mom. Making this child use a bathroom that she isn't comfortable using or that is completely separate from that of her peers creates an unnecessary stigma that a little kid shouldn't have to face–especially one that has been using the girl's bathroom for 2 years with no problem whatsoever. Suddenly questioning this girl's position in the school when she has been happily attending it for a while and has already become accustomed to a certain routine is just uncalled for.
Hopefully, the school will change their mind. In the meantime, I'm just glad that Mathis has parents who are so loving and accepting and willing to fight on her behalf.
Image via KKTV
