(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)