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Trans Youth and the Right to Access Public Washrooms

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MOVING THE DIAL ON YOUTH WELLBEING A YouthREX Research to Practice Report Trans Youth and the Right to Access Public Washrooms A critical perspective on a social policy by Jay Jaxen Jonah AUTHOR Jay Jaxen Jonah Research Assistant, YouthREX Masters Student, School of Social Work, York University CONTRIBUTORS Rebecca Houwer Knowledge Exchange Manager, YouthREX PhD Candidate, Faculty of Education, York University Yumi Numata Knowledge Mobilization & Communications Manager, YouthREX Anita Sekharan Lead Designer and Digital Content Manager, YouthREX ABSTRACT This report is licensed under a Creative This Research to Practice report defines, explores, and analyses some of the challenges, Commons Attribution- NonCommercial 2.5 fears, anxieties and issues trans-identified youth experience, particularly with respect Canada License. to safe access to public washrooms. The report places current debates about the rights This report may be reprinted or distributed, of trans youth, which have become increasingly public, in context by engaging recent including on the Internet, without permission, research and social policy. Specifically, the report presents a focused look at how the issue provided it is not offered for sale, the content is of safe access to public washrooms affects trans youth in Canada. It explores the potential not altered, and the source is properly credited. benefits and drawbacks of Canada’s now failed Bill C-279, the so-called Bathroom Bill, and provides a critical perspective on the issues it raises for trans youth. The report examines the implications of opposition to trans youths’ rights to safe public washroom This research was commissioned by the use and argues instead for the importance of upholding the basic human right of trans- Youth Research and Evaluation eXchange. identified individuals to enjoy the freedom to safely access the public washroom of their YouthREX is primarily funded by the Ontario choosing. The report concludes with recommendations for youth programs and services to Ministry of Children and Youth Services with ensure that they are inclusive and accessible for trans youth. extensive contributions from York University and the four partner universities: Carleton University; KEYWORDS King’s College University at Western University; trans youth, bill C-279, washroom, gender identity, gender expression, transgender Laurentian University and Lakehead University. APA CITATION YouthREX Jonah, J.J. (2016). Trans Youth and the Right to Access Public Washrooms: A Critical School of Social Work Perspective on a Social Policy. Youth Research and Evaluation eXchange (YouthREX). York University Toronto, ON. 4700 Keele Street Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3 RESEARCH TO PRACTICE REPORTS Fax: 416-650-3861 Moving the Dial on Youth Wellbeing is a series of multi-source plain language Research to [email protected] Practice reports that selectively review, synthesize and translate practice-relevant research, www.youthrex.com evaluation and experiential evidence applicable to the work of youth sector stakeholders www.exchange.youthrex.com across Ontario. Electronic ISBN 9781550146455 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 Introduction: Setting the Context 5 Understanding the Terminology 6 2.0 What are the Issues? A Critical Review 8 The Trans Perspective on Trans Washroom Access 10 Busting the Myths of Opposition to Trans Washroom 10 Are Gender Neutral Washrooms the Answer? 12 The Legal Implications of Bill-279: Beyond Personal Opinion or Preference 13 3.0 Moving the Dial: Good Youth Work Practices with Trans Youth 15 4.0 Conclusion 17 5.0 Learn More: Recommended Resources 18 6.0 References 19 “Entering a public washroom for the purpose of a necessary biological function should not be a shaming experience or a problem of any sort” 1 1 Jones, 2009. Girshick, 2008, p. 135 01 // INTRODUCTION: SETTING THE CONTEXT In recent years, transgender and gender non- what washroom to use. Cisgender people, whose biology and conforming communities in Canada have become gender align, may not understand what a challenge it is for trans youth to find a safe place to urinate, even in schools.6 more visible. Trans-identified youth are also at a greater risk of suicide, The term transgender has been mentioned in the news, self-harm, depression, and body shame.7 This may be the on talk shows, and in television dramas. For example, the effect of experiencing bullying, homophobia, and transphobia Collins Dictionary listed transgender among its Top 10 Words of 2015.2 Celebrities such as Laverne Cox on Orange in their schools and beyond. A study that surveyed Canadian is the New Black and Chaz Bono on Dancing with the Stars high schools between 2007 and 2009 to understand daily raise the public visibility of transgender individuals, but what student experiences of homophobia and transphobia revealed is not widely discussed or understood within academic or that “90% of trans youth hear transphobic comments daily mainstream communities is the invisibility of the everyday or weekly from other students”8 and 23% reported hearing lives and struggles of transgender and gender non- transphobic comments made by teachers. Moreover, “74% conforming people, especially youth.3 of trans students…reported having been verbally harassed about their gender expression”,9 while “37% of trans students It is already difficult to be a youth with all of the associated …reported being physically harassed or assaulted because of physical, emotional, and psychological changes that are their gender expression”. 10 happening. For those who identify as being part of the trans5 community, or in other words, whose biological sex does not This study also found that “the two school spaces most match their assigned gender at birth, many daily activities commonly experienced as unsafe by LGBTQ youth…are become even more stress inducing and anxiety provoking. places that are almost invariably gender-segregated: For example, many youth struggle with clothing choices Physical Education change rooms and washrooms”.11 Of these because they want to appear ‘cool’ and wear what is in style. two spaces, 43% of LGBTQ identified students felt unsafe Trans-identified youth not only have the stress of choosing in their school washrooms. Finally, this study found that a clothing that is cool, but they also have to choose clothing shocking 78% of trans youth on the whole felt unsafe at that hides certain features they may find undesirable, such as school, and 44% reported that they had missed school due to breasts (or the lack thereof). their feelings of being unsafe. Along with clothing, trans youth also struggle with simple daily things that most of us do not even consider, such as 2 http://www.collinsdictionary.com/word-lovers-blog/new/top-10-collins-words-of-the- 7 Sevelius, 2013; Roen, 2016; McGuire, Doty, Catalpa and Ola, 2016 year,259,HCB.html 8 Taylor et al., 2011, p.23 3 Jenness and Geis, 2011 9 Taylor et al., 2011, p.15 4 Baltes and Schaie, 2013; Arnett, 2014; Hall, 1916 10 Taylor et al., 2011 p.16 5 People can identify in an infinite number of ways (Ross, n.d.). The term trans is an 11 umbrella term that often refers to those who do not necessarily fit the dichotomous Taylor et al., 2011, p.17 categories of man/ women and/or male/ female. 6 Veale, Saewyc, Frohard-Dourlent, Dobson, and Clark, 2015; Singh, 2013; Tishelman, Kaufman, Edwards-Leeper, Mandel, Shumer and Spack, 2015 5 Trans-identified youth face daily discrimination in every major Understanding the Terminology developmental context.15 For example, within the medical industry, transgender youth have been treated as biologically Gender non-conforming refers to people who are and psychologically abnormal and deviant. There is a circulating blurring the lines between what society considers it biological, medical discourse that frames transgender youth means to be a "man" or a "woman". as suffering from “gender identity disorder”.16 Despite recent changes to the American Psychiatric Association’s (2013) fifth A distinction should be made here between gender edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DMS-5) that and sex. Cisgender people, people whose biological sex recognizes “gender dysphoria” as the distress some transgender matches their assigned gender at birth, often use the people experience, transgender youth still encounter a persistent terms sex and gender interchangeably, but there is a biomedical model that holds that transgender individuals, difference between the two.12 rather than society, need to change. A shift should be made from approaching “gender dysphoria” as an individual problem Sex refers to a person's biological make-up, our to seeing it as a problem of social organization. Transgender primary and secondary sex characteristics, and can research to date has mainly focused on the diagnosis, and the only be changed through surgery and hormone physical and the psychological transition of trans people, and treatments.13 less on the social conditions that produce hardship. While some research has examined the experiences of transgender youth Gender, on the other hand, is an abstract concept; it in formal education settings, there is a lack of research on is how a person chooses to self-identify and can be transgender youth experiences in out-of-school settings.17 either fluid or static. This Research to Practice report engages one of the everyday Gender expression is how individuals choose to present challenges that transgender and gender non-conforming their gender, something often done via clothing youth face: their
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