The Maine Human Rights Commission ruled . . . that the Orono School Department discriminated against a transgender child by denying her [him] access to the girls bathroom.
This radical ruling, and its far-reaching significance, has been ignored by every major news outlet.
UPDATE 2/2/14: Maine Supreme Court Opens Girl's Room to Men
UPDATE 1/25/10: Christians organize to oppose boys in girl's room
-- From "State rules in favor of young transgender" by Abigail Curtis, Bangor Daily News Staff 7/1/09
While the school department’s lawyer warned that schools around the state may not be ready to manage the practical fallout from the decision, civil liberties advocates hailed the ruling as an advancement of human rights.
The discrimination in question first occurred in October 2007 when the child was in the fifth grade at Asa Adams School. Until then, she [he] was allowed to use the girls’ bathroom, although she [he] was biologically male. But that fall, the transgender child was followed into the girls room by a male student who had “previously started to harass her by stalking her and calling her ‘faggot,’” according to the Maine Human Rights Commission investigator’s report.
After the second such episode, the boy was suspended and removed from the transgender child’s class. At that point, school officials told the transgender child that she [he] had to use a single-stall faculty bathroom at the other end of the school, and that was when her [his] parents decided to take the matter to the Maine Human Rights Commission.
Paul Melanson, grandfather of the boy accused of harassing the transgender student, also filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission, saying that not allowing his grandson to use the girls bathroom or the faculty bathroom as the other child did was a violation of his grandson’s right to public accommodation under the Maine Human Rights Act. Melanson had given his grandson permission to use the girls bathroom as long as the transgender student was doing so, according to the report.
On Monday, the commission found that Asa Adams School did not unlawfully discriminate against Melanson’s grandson “because of his sexual orientation,” which is a heterosexual male.
“Minor Student 2 was disciplined because his biological sex is male and his gender identity is male and he used the girls’ bathroom,” the investigator’s report said.
Patricia Ryan, executive director of the Maine Human Rights Commission, said this decision is among the first to involve schools, sexual orientation provision, gender identity and the issues of bathroom use. She said schools in Maine likely will want to take a look at it.
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