Activists and community rally for transgender students rights to choose restroom
People rallied in Palm Springs to stand in solidarity with transgender youths.
“If you are transgender, you should be able to go to the bathroom that you are transgendering too because that’s how you feel and that’s who you want to be,” Solange Signoret said.
“If we’re not able to use the restroom we feel comfortable using then we’ll be forced to use the restroom that we don’t want to use and we’ll be subjected to ridicule, subjected to bullying and even bodily harm,” Paulina Angel said.
On Wednesday night, President Donald Trump’s administration revoked federal guidelines put in place last May by former President Barack Obama’s administration for public schools to allow transgender youths to use restrooms they identify with.
“This is not something that the federal government should be involved in. This is a states-rights issue,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said.
Some people in the valley said that breakdown of guidelines left in individual state hands is a blow to LGBTQ rights and their safety.
“It will make it harder for individuals to come out in those places where they are most vulnerable in our country — in the South, in the Midwest, in the states where they are not going to support them,” said Lisa Middleton of LGBT Community Center of the Desert.
While transgender youths weren’t seen at the rally, activists and some city leaders were sharing inspirational messages and stories to remind others to stay strong and stand united.
“Fortunately, in California we have state law. The students are protected and there is nothing that the Trump’s administration can do to take that away,” said Palm Springs City Councilor Geoff Kors.
It was a short rally with passionate speakers and a powerful message from one 11-year-old girl.
“I hope that No. 45 (Trump) hears what we all here as a democracy have to say here, what we are doing today and we knock some sense into him,” Signoret said.
Kors said the council will vote in a closed meeting Monday whether to back a 17-year-old transgender teen’s legal fight from Virginia with a school district to use restrooms he identifies with his gender. The case is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court in March.
