The topic of transgender people has become a popular topic in the last few years. One thing these people do not have is the support and understanding of everyone around them. The lack of representation often leads to them not being represented properly, which can cause problems such as low self-esteem and unfairness in places such as school. Aware of the problem at hand, a school board in Loudoun County, West Virginia, has voted 7 to 2 to allow transgender students to choose the bathroom they use based on what they identify with. The vote in favor of transgender rights has allowed having student autonomy and freedom for everyone. In Loudoun schools, transgender students can also use locker rooms and bathrooms that best suit their identities. The vote, which will take immediate effect, has had many consequences, such as critics and protests from other residents of Loudoun County and other places around the country.
Although they received some protests, they have also received much support for treating transgender people with respect. The voting process and debate took four hours before a decision was made. It was also debated in the previous board meeting, so the new policy did not shock anyone. Loudoun school board members had already talked about the intention to implement the new policy within the school. The vice-chair of the Loudoun school board stated, the most important values and beliefs of the children is what I base my votes on and, the Loudoun school board chose a policy so we could protect the transgender students here so they could feel safe and welcome and this can be considered as the first step to education. These statements make it clear that the school board was doing what was best for every student who attended the school. The goal was to ensure all students, including transgender students, felt comfortable and welcome while giving them basic rights. Along with the new bathroom and locker room policy, teachers will need to address and respect a student’s chosen pronouns and names, if chosen by the student. For example, anyone identifying as a girl (transgender or not) will use the pronouns she or her. Professional counselors in the school will go through training to learn how to help transgender students best, including bullying, harassment, and discrimination.
One former student named Nicholas Gothard spoke out and said, “We had all expected an abundance of support, but this was much more than expected; it was a big relief and this issue has proven that the school board and educators fight for the students. Based on his statements, it seems like the support of this policy was expected, but it was still relieving to know that the students would be treated appropriately in the school. A supporter of this policy named Jennifer Boysko explained why it is an essential step for the school by saying we have many students in the education system who are very vulnerable and should be called the name that they have chosen and should be able to use the bathroom or locker room that is for with their gender they identify with. Jennifer and other supporters are ecstatic that the students will now be treated fairly and humanely. A non-supporter of the policy named Jeff Morse kept it short by saying it was a hard night. So even though the people who did not vote for this policy lost, they are not resorting to attacks and harassment; they have accepted that they lost.
