(March 24, 2016)
Yesterday, the governor of North Carolina signed into law a bill that, among other discriminatory provisions, bans trans students from school bathrooms. States across the country, including Kansas and Tennessee, are currently considering similar bills. To justify outright hate, legislators say these bills are necessary to “protect” women and girls. Yet these laws only promote violence against trans girls while perpetuating misinformation about how and where sexual violence really does occur. There are no known cases supporting the terrible, false myth perpetuated by these legislators: that trans women, or cis men pretending to be trans women, sexually assault people in bathrooms. Instead, trans students, and particularly trans women, face higher rates of victimization than their cis classmates.
As anti-violence organizations dedicated to ending gender violence in schools, we have seen legislators across the country refuse to act on staggering rates of gender violence against young people. Their attempts to now co-opt our concerns to discriminate against trans students – those students most in need of protection – is unconscionable. The signatories below wish to send a clear message to these legislators: We see that you only care about violence against women and girls in school when you can use it as an excuse to discriminate against trans students. Don’t you dare discriminate under the guise of protecting some of us.
Signed,
Know Your IX
Associated Students Women’s Commission (University of California, San Diego)
Better Sex Talk
Brandeis Students Against Sexual Violence
Brooklyn College Students Coalition
CARE (James Madison University)
Carolina Advocating for Gender Equality at UNC Chapel Hill
Coalition Against Sexual Violence at Columbia University
Colgate Forward
Feminist Society at NYU
FIRSST (Goshen College)
Georgetown University Take Back the Night
Harvard Law School HALT
La Familia de Colores (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Morehead State’s Student Association for Gender Equality
M.U.J.E.R. de UCSB
No Red Tape
Our Harvard Can Do Better
Sexual Assault Network for Grads
The Siren: UNC Chapel Hill’s Feminist Magazine
Students Against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Misconduct (University of California, Davis)
Students for Sexual Respect at NYU
SUNY New Paltz Take Back The Night
SUNY New Paltz Survivor Support Group
Title IX at Northwestern
VOICE (Cal State, San Bernardino)
VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood at Arizona State University
Weber Students for Choice
Womyn’s Awareness Center (Gustavus Adolphus College)