Tori Otten
Tue, November 14, 2023
A city in Tennessee is using a recently passed ordinance essentially prohibiting homosexuality in public to try to ban library books that might violate the new rules.
Murfreesboro passed an ordinance in June banning “indecent behavior,” including “indecent exposure, public indecency, lewd behavior, nudity or sexual conduct.” As journalist Erin Reed first reported, this ordinance specifically mentions Section 21-72 of the city code. The city code states that sexual conduct includes homosexuality.
Anyone who violates the new ordinance is barred from hosting public events or selling goods and services at public events for two years. Anyone who violates the ordinance “in the presence of minors” is barred for five years.
An ACLU-backed challenge to the ordinance has already been launched, but that hasn’t stopped city officials from implementing the measure. Last Monday, the Rutherford County steering committee met to discuss removing all books that might potentially violate the ordinance from the public library. The resolution was met with widespread outcry from city residents.
“When have the people who ban books ever been the good guys?” local activist Keri Lambert demanded during the Monday county meeting.
Murfreesboro city officials have already used the ordinance to ban four books that discuss LGBTQ themes. In August, the county library board pulled the books Flamer, Let’s Talk About It, Queerfully and Wonderfully Made, and This Book Is Gay.
The board also implemented a new library card system that categorizes books into certain age groups. When it takes effect next year, children and teenagers will only be able to check out books that correspond to their age group; they will need permission from a parent or guardian to check out “adult” books.
Library director Rita Shacklett worried in August that the new rules would prevent students from accessing books they need for a class. She explained that many classic high school books, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, are now classified as “adult.”
It’s unclear if the county steering committee plans to pull books such as the A Song of Ice and Fire series, which includes multiple depictions of heterosexual sexual conduct.
Murfreesboro’s new ordinance is part of a much larger wave of attacks on LGBTQ rights in Tennessee and the rest of the country. In the past year, the so-called Volunteer State became the first state to try to ban drag performances. That law was overturned in court.
In March, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow people to refuse to perform a marriage if they disagree with it, essentially gutting marriage equality. The bill was introduced in the Senate but deferred until next year.
After controversy, Texas school board says transgender student can sing in school musical
Ayden Runnels
Tue, November 14, 2023
Max Hightower, 17, poses for a portrait in a hotel in Denton on Nov. 9, 2023. Credit: Azul Sordo for The Texas Tribune
Update: The Sherman school board on Monday directed high school leadership to allow the production of "Oklahoma!" to proceed as planned before the school principal stripped trans student Max Hightower of his role, the Dallas Morning News reported. The board also insisted the original script — and not a "youth" version — be used. This ensures Hightower will have a solo. However, it's unclear when the show will be staged.
DENTON — Max Hightower was hooked on theater after watching the musical “Hamilton.” Then just 13, he begged his family to rewatch it immediately. Soon, he started every morning listening to the soundtrack.
“I was like, ‘Oh my god, you can sing in a play, that's insane,’” said Max, who was already an active choir singer.
So, when Max, who is now a high school senior, was cast in a supporting role with his own solo in the Sherman High School production of “Oklahoma!” — a quintessentially American musical about love and statehood — he threw himself into the production.
But now it’s unclear whether Max, who is transgender, will get to sing as Ali Hakim, the Persian peddler. Through a whiplash of sudden policy changes about the gender of performers and public hand-wringing about the revered American musical’s content, Sherman school officials have effectively cast Max as the lead in a very different drama playing out in real life. It’s more akin to the civil rights fight of “Hairspray” than the love triangle in “Oklahoma!”
After Max was bumped from the chorus to the supporting role, the school pulled aside him and several of his fellow student thespians. High school administrators told students one by one that the play would be postponed and recast and that students could only play roles that match their sex assigned at birth.
After the initial decision garnered local and national headlines, the district on Friday recanted the gender policy. But the district also announced the school will now produce an “age appropriate” version of the play.
Only two versions of “Oklahoma!” are available from a firm that holds the licensing rights: the original and a “youth” version billed as an “adaptation for pre-high school students” that has content “edited to better suit younger attention spans.” In that version, the character Max was previously cast to play is now listed just as “The Peddler.” The run time of the show is one hour, compared to the original’s two-hour length.
"I think it's insulting. I think it's still targeting Max. I think they chose the version that would have Max in it the least," said Amy Hightower, Max’s mom.
The waffling about transgender students’ participation in a musical is the latest wrinkle in a national debate over trans rights, especially in public schools.
The fights, which have played out in school board meeting rooms and statehouses across the U.S., have largely focused on books in school libraries, access to restrooms and participation in sports. But Texas lawmakers earlier this year also banned trans kids from accessing puberty blockers and hormone therapy that leading medical groups have OK’d for children.
In Texas, decisions by school districts to enact strict gender policies and review the books available to students have made national headlines, including a new documentary podcast about the suburban Grapevine school district. Max’s family worries Sherman ISD’s handling of “Oklahoma!” has pushed the district in that direction.
“I didn't want us to be that,” Max’s father Phillip Hightower said. “I wanted us to show that we could stay somewhat progressive and look out for the needs of every kid.”
Sherman ISD, which has a student population of about 7,800, did not make any administrators available for comment, and the school board has not voted on any rules about student performers' gender assigned at birth.
One statement from the Sherman school district said “Oklahoma!” featured “mature adult themes, profane language, and sexual content.” Still, the show has been a staple production in high school theater departments for decades. That earlier statement also said that the policy about performers’ gender wouldn’t necessarily be applied to future shows.
“Sherman ISD values the diversity of our students and staff and knows this has been an especially difficult time for many of our students,” said a Friday statement from the district. “The circumstances revealed the need to implement a more formal review process for theatrical productions and scripts. Moving forward, the District will have a tighter review and approval process, and we apologize that this was not already in place.”
But that’s done little to appease Max’s parents.
“The superintendent and the administration is attempting to deflect blame,” Phillip Hightower said. “To deflect blame to the theater department, to the theater director, hell, I guess even to the school board that approved this a year and a half ago. Their non-apology sickens me."
Amy and Phillip Hightower sit with their son Max Hightower.
Credit: Azul Sordo for The Texas Tribune
Centuries of artistic precedence
LGBTQ+ activists and lawyers believe the Sherman district’s initial decision about gender in casting decisions is the first of its kind to intrude on arts. Theater, in particular, has a centuries-old tradition of bending gender roles. Shakespeare routinely cast men in female roles.
Max’s gender identity has not been a secret. He came out to his friends as trans in the eighth grade and to his parents a year later. Barring some bullying and occasionally misused pronouns, he is treated like any other 12th grader.
So when Max was told he could no longer star in his new role, he was taken completely off-guard.
“I know it's Texas, I know where we live, but not my school,” Max said. “There were so many queer kids in Sherman High school, I was like, ‘They wouldn't pass something like that because they knew how bad that would get.’”
Max was not the only student whose birth gender did not align with their role in the play, nor the only trans student involved. The school had a shortage of male actors, and so many students, trans and cisgender alike, had lost the opportunity to play the parts they wanted.
The now-abandoned policy is believed to be the first attempt in the state to restrict theater productions based on sex, but similar cases have occurred. In Fort Worth, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against a charter school after it created a policy stating students could only join choirs based on their assigned gender at birth.
Brian Klosterboer, ACLU attorney and chair of the LGBT Law Section of the State Bar of Texas, called Sherman ISD’s temporary gender policy a “very extreme and egregious example” of discrimination and likened it to the lawsuit in Fort Worth.
“This Sherman ISD decision unfortunately is an example of this extreme anti-transgender animus that we are seeing here in Texas and across the country,” Klosterboer said.
Klosterboer and Equality Texas communications director Johnathan Gooch both said that Sherman ISD’s rolled-back policy appeared to be a clear violation of Title IX, the civil rights law prohibiting discrimination based on gender. In 2021, the Department of Education released a notice explaining that discrimination based on gender identity would violate Title IX.
Misconceptions about Texans’ acceptance
Gooch said the Sherman policy does not reflect what many Texans want from school leaders. Seventy-five percent of Texans support LGBTQ+ non-discrimination laws, according to the Public Religion Research Institute.
“I think there are some misconceptions about what Texans generally want and expect from their school boards and their community leaders,” Gooch said.
In a rural city of 46,000 almost 70 miles north of Dallas, sympathy for LGBTQ+ issues in Sherman seemed sparse to the Hightowers — but not impossible. Amy, who is from Howe, felt that the fast-growing city could be a better place for Max than more rural areas nearby. Phillip thought the community could grow into what they needed.
Valerie Fox, founder of local LGBTQ+ nonprofit Grayson Pride, said the city is more accepting than it appears, but fear of public backlash prevents allyship from becoming public.
“We can get a lot of secret support, so we can get some money if we need to in a pinch,” Fox said. “They'll donate it to us, but they don't want to be on a sponsor banner. They don't want anyone to know.”
Fox started Grayson Pride because one of her children is gay and Fox didn’t see support for LGBTQ+ identities in Sherman. She said attendance has quadrupled since she started the nonprofit four years ago.
The Hightowers have considered moving out of state to where Max’s siblings live and where there is less concern over how Max would be treated, but it is no easy choice.
“I don't really want to move away from here,” Phillip said. “I want to change here.”
Max’s parents had kept his transition private, even from some family members, out of concern and fear. But after the district took away their child’s pivotal role, they went to Facebook and posted publicly about the experience. The response, they said, has been overwhelmingly and unexpectedly supportive.
“If I'd have known that we had all of the support and all those resources, we would have reached out so long ago,” Amy said.
Grayson Pride and several community members plan to attend Sherman ISD’s Monday school board meeting. The play’s postponement is not on the meeting’s official agenda.
After local broadcast station KXII reported on the play’s postponement, Max said the atmosphere at school has completely shifted. Students follow him around and have called him transphobic names. His parents pulled him from school and opted to stay in a hotel for the later part of the week.
“People were trying to follow me to the bathroom to see which one I'd go into,” Max said.
Gooch says policies like the one in Sherman ISD not only violate Title IX but also create a hostile environment that enables further discrimination. Eighty-six percent of LGBTQ youth feel that recent political discussion has negatively impacted their well-being, according to a report from the Trevor Project.
Disclosure: Equality Texas, Facebook and the State Bar of Texas have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
Only a handful of Pa. school districts have policies protecting trans students
Bethany Rodgers and Chris Ullery, USA TODAY NETWORK
Updated Mon, November 13, 2023
Bathroom bans and other provisions targeting transgender students have cropped up in a number of Pennsylvania school districts in recent years, part of a wave of state and local laws to restrict everything from trans health care to participation in sports.
But a handful of school districts in the commonwealth have moved in the opposite direction, making official commitments to recognize and safeguard students’ rights to assert their gender identities.
At least 30 school districts in Pennsylvania have embraced protections for transgender students, often through policies that touch on names and pronouns, confidentiality, athletics and access to private spaces such as locker rooms and bathrooms, according to an analysis by the USA TODAY Network.
Generally, these policies have surfaced over the past seven years in the collar counties around Philadelphia and near other Pennsylvania cities.
Brian Dittmeier, policy director at GLSEN, a national network that pushes for safe learning environments for LGBTQ youth, told the USA TODAY Network that specific policies with enumerated protections for LGTBQ youth help "build a culture of inclusion across the school community” and help both students and school staff address harassment.
These policies are also a wise legal move, said Christopher Dormer, superintendent in the Norristown Area School District.
In a time when many people view school systems with suspicion and accuse administrators of making decisions out of personal bias, it’s helpful to have a legally vetted policy for all to see, he said.
“It just puts everybody in a position of like, here is the governance and the guidelines that we all agree we’re going to live by,” said Dormer, whose district adopted its policy on transgender students in 2019.
File - At least 30 school districts in Pennsylvania have embraced protections for transgender students, often through policies that touch on names and pronouns, confidentiality, athletics and access to private spaces such as locker rooms and bathrooms, according to an analysis by the USA TODAY Network. Here a transgender student in the Central Bucks School District speaks out against a policy at a press conference in 2021.More
At least four school districts in Pennsylvania have faced lawsuits over the treatment of transgender or non-binary students since 2015. And practices in Central Bucks School District have spawned multiple legal issues, with the ACLU, on behalf of seven students, accusing the district of creating a “hostile” and “toxic” environment toward LGBTQ students and pressing for a federal investigation. The Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights is investigating the ACLU complaint.
Advocates and supporters of transgender protections have also described them as a moral imperative — important for the wellness of LGBTQ students, whose risk of self-harm decreases in supportive and affirming environments.
More: These Pennsylvania school districts have enacted transgender student protection policies
Survey: Pa. residents, is your school district supportive of LGBTQ+ students?
A 2021 National School Climate Survey conducted by GLSEN found that transgender students in districts with affirming policies reported lower rates of harassment and absenteeism and were less likely to be prevented access to school facilities and activities consistent with their gender identity.
But opponents contend the policies themselves are discriminatory, infringing on the rights of parents and on the privacy of cisgender students in bathrooms and changing areas.
“You've got to preserve the rights of everyone, not just the one class of people,” said Bruce Chambers, former school board president in Chester County’s Great Valley School District.
Anusha Viswanathan chastises board members in the Central Bucks School District during public comment Feb. 7. The board has passed a series of controversial policies that led to continued complaints it is fostering anti-LGBTQ sentiments in schools.
Why are Pa. districts passing these policies?
In New Hope-Solebury School District, located in Bucks County, school directors decided to pursue a policy on transgender students several years ago following “disparaging public comments” about these young people, according to a statement released by the board.
“In response to these comments, students, families and local representatives of the LGBTQ community advocated for a school policy that would support inclusion and provide guidance for meeting the needs of transgender students,” the statement continued.
In the Norristown Area School District, which serves a diverse Montgomery County community, officials have long been on a mission to increase racial equity and inclusivity, according to Dormer.
More: Central Bucks committee: Policy, not pornography, led to removing two LGBTQ-themed books
Several years ago, they realized they needed to broaden these efforts after one parent, whose elementary-age child was exploring gender, encouraged the district to adopt policies that would support students no matter how they chose to identify.
“It was kind of a great moment for us to say, ‘Yeah, we’re not going to just do it for you and your child, but this is about every child here and our staff,’” he said.
Dormer said when his school district began exploring policies on gender expansive and transgender students, officials didn’t have many examples to draw upon.
However, district leaders sought guidance from parents, community members and college researchers, he said, and the Pennsylvania School Boards Association also offered some guidance. Crafting the policy took about two years, and the Norristown school board adopted it in June 2019.
The policy — mirrored in many of the other Pennsylvania districts that have passed protections for transgender youth — states that students have the right to use restrooms, locker rooms and other private spaces that correspond with their gender identities. It also lays out direction on pronoun use, school programs and staff training.
A similar policy is in effect in Montgomery County’s Upper Dublin School District, which initially adopted language on transgender students in 2016 but reaffirmed and updated it earlier this year.
Transgender students in the district have credited the policy with supporting their mental health and their ability to succeed in school.
More on a push to change school policy: Libraries to locker rooms: How a religious law firm is changing PA school policies
“Being able to use my name and my preferred pronouns and being able to be comfortable at school has made my mental health and just my life a lot better,” one transgender teen said to the Upper Dublin school board during a hearing earlier this year.
One transgender teenager who had made several past suicide attempts told the school board that, by encouraging people to respect names and pronouns, these protections might even have saved the student’s life.
File - In New Hope-Solebury School District, located in Bucks County, school directors decided to pursue a policy on transgender students several years ago following “disparaging public comments” about these young people, according to a statement released by the board.
More: Penncrest board enacts book ban with one policy, targets transgender athletes with another
Pushback from near and far
Even in progressive communities, though, policies on transgender students can unleash a firestorm of criticism from conservative activists and national right-wing outlets warning of supposed gender indoctrination efforts in public schools.
One particularly controversial provision in many of these district policies reiterates the right to privacy and prohibits staff members from disclosing a student’s gender identity to parents, guardians or other school employees unless the child gives express permission or there's a legal necessity.
Some parents have reacted to this mandate with anger, arguing they have a right to know if their children are socially transitioning at school.
“You don’t hide information from parents,” said Chambers, the former school board president from Chester County. “The parents are responsible for raising the children, not the school.”
Great Valley School District enacted its policy after Chambers left office, and he said he was unaware of its existence for a couple of years. To him, the privacy provision was the most troubling part of the policy, but he also disagrees with allowing transgender students access to the restrooms and locker rooms of their choice, arguing that doing so discriminates against the cisgender youth who use those facilities.
In general, he said, he would favor giving transgender students the option to use a single-occupant bathroom or changing area.
The Greater Johnstown School District in Cambria County has also drawn backlash for a privacy policy, with the far-right website Breitbart accusing it of trying to “keep parents in the dark.”
The district’s website states that the policy is under legal review. Greater Johnstown officials did not respond to a request for comment.
More: Central Bucks still reviewing transgender athletes ban, but has draft plan to enforce it
But Dormer said these provisions are important to stay in compliance with federal student privacy laws and for the safety of any children who are in volatile living situations.
“In our responsibility to protect the well-being of the child, we don't want to set them up for anything that might potentially become unsafe at home,” he said.
Norristown Area School District has been on the receiving end of criticism for its inclusivity efforts, this year attracting attention for an initiative aimed at creating safe spaces in schools. As part of the initiative — a partnership between the district and the local teachers' union — participating educators and other staff members wore “I’m here” badges indicating they’re available to offer a listening ear and resources to these students.
Dormer said he saw the badges as a way to support students.
The conservative outlet National Review, on the other hand, characterized the initiative as an example of “culture-war aggression” being perpetrated by teachers' unions and an attempt to push “left-wing gender ideology” into schools.
But while policies on transgender students have ignited fierce battles in some school communities, Dormer said families in his district embraced the new requirements. In fact, in the four years since the policy passed, the superintendent said his district hasn’t gotten a single complaint about them.
“I’m really proud,” Dormer said. “We knew there were students that were feeling lost, that we now were able to make sure that they were included … and they felt loved and supported and could be their authentic selves every single day here at school.”
Student members of Holicong's Gay Straight Alliance club stand outside their Central Bucks school in Buckingham on Tuesday as part of a protest against a recent policy teachers say would make LGBTQ support "invisible" by removing pride flags.
Encouraging Pa. districts to update policies
While privacy policies like the one in Great Valley may outrage some parents, it’s also in line with advice from the American Psychological Association and the American School Counselor Association.
Both associations say it’s the individual student who decides how and with whom they share their gender identity status, and staff need the consent of the students before sharing that information with parents.
Both groups also refer to reports and surveys by GLSEN, formerly the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network.
Originally formed by a group of teachers in 1990, GLSEN is a national network of 1½ million members researching and advocating for safe learning environments for LGBTQ youth.
In GLSEN’s 2021 National School Climate Survey, more than 81% of the students surveyed reported feeling unsafe in school. The survey included responses from 22,298 students between the ages of 13 and 21 across the country. The average student age was about 15 and they were mostly between the 6th and 12 grade.
About 920 of that survey’s respondents were enrolled in a Pennsylvania school.
While many of those LGBTQ students reported some form of gender-based discrimination, GLSEN notes that “transgender and nonbinary students in particular experienced gender-based discrimination.”
Most of the gender-based discrimination reported in the survey came in the form of not being allowed to use a chosen name or pronouns (39%). Many transgender and non-binary students reported not being able to use bathrooms (34%) or locker rooms (32%) that aligned with their gender identity.
Almost 20% of respondents weren’t allowed to wear clothing or play on sports teams of their identified gender either.
The report also found that 22% of LGBTQ students reported being disciplined for public displays of affection that did not result in punishment for non-LGBTQ students.
Another 14% reported not being allowed to write or discuss LGBTQ topics in extracurricular activities.
GLSEN’s website hosts a number of research and policy resources, including model anti-bullying and gender-affirming school policies.
“Unfortunately, only roughly one in eight LGBTQ+ students are in a district with enumerated protections for gender identity,” Dittmeier said. “School districts can act now to update policies that reflect federal civil rights law, but GLSEN is hopeful that forthcoming updates to Title IX regulations from the U.S. Department of Education will encourage comprehensive policies that more robustly protect LGBTQI+ students.”
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: How some PA school districts are supporting trans students
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