Hillsboro High School (part of
Hillsboro R-3 School District) in Jefferson County, Missouri, is in the news, due to the fact that
trans female Lila Perry (
@transwitchcraft) has been
subjected to bigoted transphobic taunts and
protests for having the courage to use the restrooms and locker room that correspond to the gender she identifies with. Thankfully, there was also a smaller protest in support of Lila and transgender rights and against transphobia.
Zack Ford at Think Progress LGBT:
At Hillsboro High School in Missouri, Lila Perry came out as transgender last year. She used a unisex faculty restroom for a time, but felt ostracized, so this year told the school she wanted to be treated like other female students and use the girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms. The school has been supportive, but parents have have not.
Parents at the school have claimed that Perry’s bathroom usage is violating the privacy of other girls. They held a protest Monday alongside a student walkout while Perry remained in the principal’s office for her safety. Shortly after, Jeff Childs and his son Blayke held their own demonstration, driving around the parking lot with “Girls Rights Matter” painted on their Ford pickup. “This needs to stop before it goes too far,” Childs warned.
The conservative legal juggernaut the Alliance Defending Freedom has also gotten involved, sending a letter to the district asking it to change its decision. “Compelling students to share restrooms and locker rooms with members of the opposite sex,” the letter claims, “violates their right to bodily privacy and would not only lead to potential legal liability for the School District and its employees, but would also violate the students’ and parents’ fundamental rights.”
[...]
But transgender-inclusive policies do make a difference for the students most impacted by them. Lila Perry, for example, dropped out of her physical education class because there was too little supervision to ensure she felt safe. Moreover, though she insists, “I am a girl. I am not going to be pushed away to another bathroom,” she admits that she rarely uses the bathroom now at school. One study in the Washington, D.C. area found that 70 percent of transgender people had experienced some kind of negative reaction when just trying to use the restroom.
“I’m not going to hurt their daughters,” Perry explained. “I’m not going to expose myself. I’m not a pervert; I’m a transgender woman; I’m a girl. I’m just in there to change, do my business, and that if they have any questions about being transgender, they are more than welcome to talk to me, and I’ll be happy to explain it.”
Jay Hathaway at Gawker:
Around 150 students at Hillsboro (Mo.) High School walked out of school Monday to protest against a trans classmate using the girls’ locker room during gym class. Thirty or forty students also protested in support of Lila Perry, a Hillsboro senior who has identified as female since age 13 and came out as trans last school year.
The protest followed a contentious school board meeting last Thursday, where some parents voiced their concerns about their girls sharing a locker room with another girl.
“There’s a lot of ignorance, they are claiming that they’re uncomfortable. I don’t believe for a second that they are. I think this is pure and simple bigotry,” Perry told local news station KMOV.
Lila is right on.
Elizabeth Denton at Seventeen Magazine:
High school senior Lila Perry has identified as a female since she was 13-years-old. In the middle of the school year last year at Hillsboro High Schoolin Hillsboro, MO, she came out publicly as transgender. The school is compliant with Title IX and has gender-neutral bathrooms, but Lila decided she's tired of the segregation. She wants to use the girls' bathrooms and locker rooms since she's a girl, but students at her school aren't having it.
Yesterday morning, 150 of Lila's fellow students walked out in protest of her using the girl's locker room in gym class. The walkout lasted for two hours, and Lila stayed inside the principal's office because she was afraid for her safety.
Karen Workman at The New York Times:
“I’m hoping this dies down,” said Lila Perry, the 17-year-old who began identifying as a girl publicly in February. “I don’t want my entire senior year to be like this.”
Ms. Perry, who began feeling “more like a girl than a boy” when she was 13, said school officials gave her permission to use the girls’ facilities as the new school year began.
[...]
The Missouri Gay-Straight Alliance Network will host a rally supporting Ms. Perry on Friday.
Roche Madden at Fox2now on why she dropped out of gym class:
HILLSBORO, MO (KTVI) - Students staged a walk-out even though a transgender student at Hillsboro High School has decided to drop out of P.E. class and quit changing in the girl's locker room. It is an issue that educators across the country are dealing with.
Students walked out for almost two hours. Some against what the transgender student has been doing, others supporting her.
Of course, Tea Party radio host Dana Loesch had to butt in and DEFEND the protesters who were transphobic, couching it as a "concern of safety" and misgendering her with male pronouns.
DanaBusted.blogspot.com on Loesch's misgendering of Lila Perry:
I have family and friends with children in the Hillsboro School District. That this issue is taking place here, a rural community about 45 minutes south of St. Louis, is pretty unbelievable. A young man, a senior in high school, has decided to "identify" as a girl and was given use of the gender-neutral faculty restroom. It wasn't a good enough option; he demanded use of the girls's locker rooms and restrooms as well, a move which made the girls extremely uncomfortable. Many students and parents oppose.
[...]
Unfortunately, he isn't like other female students because he isn't female. He also doesn't get to determine what's best for hundreds of young girls or judge their reaction. Hundreds of students walked out in protest. The young man claims the girls are bigots for wanting to be comfortable while undressing.
Derrick Good, a father of two girls in the district and a right-wing activist attorney,
was on KFTK's The Dana Show today to give the side of the transphobic bigots.
From the 09.01.2015 edition of KFTK/Radio America's The Dana Show:
He also appeared on TheBlazeTV's Dana later on to spew more anti-trans rhetoric.
From the 09.01.2015 edition of TheBlazeTV's Dana:
The real bigot is people like you and the transphobic protesters who were opposed to Lila Perry.
PROMO Missouri is encouraging people to #StandByLila:
Facebook user Ryan Coleman gives the cold hard facts about the transphobia Lila's facing:
6:16 AM PT: On Friday, there is a going to be a #LiftingUpLila rally on Friday, September 4th, 2015, at 5PM:
2:48 PM PT: ABC30:
Jamie's Final Word on the brouhaha at HIllsboro High School south of St. Louis this week.
Mr. Allman joined in on the misgendering of Lila Perry during his TV show this week.
It's utterly criminal and unfair that Jamie Allman gets free reign to spew out his hate on both TV (KDNL) and radio (KFTK).