Senate committee hears 'bathroom bill' testimony

The Missouri Senate Committee on Education met Tuesday to hear testimony on three bills. While the first two - about best curriculum practices for students who are blind and the establishment of a donation-funded scholarship to pay for private or home-school options for certain students - received notable discussion, it was clear from the outset of the meeting the third bill about bathroom access for transgender students would prove to be the most emotional.

Dozens of people filled out witness forms to testify on SB 98 - most in opposition. The sponsor of the bill, Sen. Ed Emery, R-Vernon County, sat next to transgender students, their parents, teachers, advocates of the LGBT community and others as they testified. Several opponents were brought to tears as they recounted personal stories of internal anguish, public harassment and fear; Emery at times offered tissues or a pat on the shoulder.

"My son is a child. My son is a student," not confused, not delusional and not a sexual predator, Kelly Storck, of St. Louis County, said about her transgender son and the fears people have of him.

"You're proposing a fix to a problem that does not exist," she said of the bill.

SB 98 defines gender as biological sex at birth as determined by anatomy and the make up of a person's chromosomes. The bill then proposes to use that language as a basis to mandate only students of the same biological sex can use public school restroom, locker room and shower facilities together.

Transgender students would be able to ask for alternative accommodations like being able to use single-stall facilities, but otherwise under the bill, they would have to use the facilities that match their sex as listed on their birth certificate.

Sara Baker said the bill though is a "dangerous proposal that ignores equal treatment for all." Baker is the legislative and policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri.

Opponents contend forcing transgender students to use facilities of the sex with which they do not identify will only unnecessarily expose them to further harassment and assault.

Emery said the bill's purpose is to protect the personal privacy and safety of all students.

"Every student would be impacted by this bill," he said. He also said the bill would help provide school districts with firmer guidelines about how to accommodate the interests of transgender students and their peers.

As previously reported by the News Tribune, representatives of the Missouri School Board Association have said there won't be any clear guidelines for schools until state and national-level courts settle issues of privacy and equitable access under the law, specifically Title IX.

Discussion Tuesday was about acceptance of the realities of the transgender community as much as any legal definitions, though.

Sen. Andrew Koening, R-Manchester, questioned if it was appropriate for parents to "cultivate" a gender identity in young children different than that assigned at birth. He said his children can pretend to be dogs, for example, but he wouldn't nurture that idea while they're at an age unable to make adult decisions.

Pediatrician and a mother of a transgender son, Dr. Sharon Dunski Vermont, of the St. Louis area, said, however, pretending doesn't involve depression, anxiety or suicide. Other parents of transgender students also noted the struggles they had in coming to terms with the identity of their child, but some chose to support their children after becoming aware of the potential health effects of not recognizing the identity by which their child lives.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) reports 38-65 percent of transgender individuals experience suicidal thoughts. NAMI also reports people of the LGBTQ community generally are four times more likely to attempt suicide, experience suicidal thoughts or engage in self-harm.

According to NAMI, these health trends are caused by and feed back into other mental health issues, like substance abuse and depression, that stem from experiencing prejudice and stigma. A quarter of people in LGBTQ communities abuse alcohol, compared to 5-10 percent of the general population. NAMI also reports some people in LGBTQ communities with underlying mental health issues may refrain from seeking health care because of their fears of experiencing prejudice and stigma.

LGBTQ advocates, though, wanted it to be clear Tuesday that identifying as transgender is not a mental illness. The American Psychological Association (APA), which publishes the mental health care standard text Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), reports "Many transgender people do not experience their gender as distressing or disabling, which implies that identifying as transgender does not constitute a mental disorder."

"Gender dysphoria" still exists for now in DSM-5 as a potential diagnosis for people "who experience intense, persistent gender incongruence," but there are serious efforts, at least in the international health community, to re-work definitions like this and remove being transgender as an illness from the International Classification of Diseases diagnostic manual used by the United Nations' World Health Organization.

Elizabeth Fuchs, manager of public policy at PROMO, testified Tuesday she was "thankful for the opportunity to shine a light on misconceptions about the transgender community.

"It sounds like I'm hearing a lot of empathy," she said of senators' feelings toward parents and students. She asked the legislators to approach people in the transgender community with the same attitudes - beyond stereotypes to people's places in communities as parents and students.