WND has cast rights for transgender students as a War on Children. A video, produced by WND, featuring an asshole named Molotov Mitchell, mocks the new California law to protect transgender students as "comprehensive bathroom reform."
The video never once uses the word "transgender," preferring to monger "bathroom panic", while casting transgender kids as "horny adolescent boys" sneaking into girls restrooms and locker rooms.
Thanks to this law, it's also legal for horny adolescent boys to join the girls' wrestling team if they so desire, to stand around in their locker rooms while they change, and even shower with them if they want. What a brilliant way to protect children!
Finally, at K through 8 schools, middle school boys can now go into little girls' bathrooms. What could possibly go wrong? I think we all know what can - and will - go wrong.
School districts with policies similar to the new California law, which include the San Francisco and Los Angeles school districts, have no…absolutely none…instances of misconduct reported. Those districts have stated that transgender protections have met with "nothing but positive results."
But reality has no affect on the fear mongering and hate peddling of rightwing media. Fox host Martha MacCallum has said transphobic bullying is "not a big problem." Fox & Friends' Gretchen Carlson and guest Michelle Malkin questioned why stopping the harassment of transgender students should be a priority of teachers, saying that this was "social engineering run amok," and Fox's Bill O'Reilly called the new law, "the biggest con in the world."
Reality is that 82% of transgender respondents to the National Center for Transgender Equality's report, Peer Violence and Bullying Against Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Youth (pdf) reported feeling unsafe at school, nearly 9 out of 10 reported experiencing transphobic or homophobic harassment from peers, and 44% reported being "punched, kicker, or injured with a weapon at least once" in the prior year.
But no matter to Fox and WND. Transgender people don't really exist, so those numbers should be ignored.
But recognizing the reality of transphobic bullying doesn't fit into the conservative narrative about "social engineering run amok" in schools. To recognize the severity of abuse experienced by transgender youth would require admitting that right-wing (mis)understanding of gender and gender identity does real damage to a vulnerable population. For Mitchell and Fox News, it's much easier to pretend that the experiences of transgender people don't actually exist.
What most of these earwigs miss is that the bill also includes the following analysis in addressing establishment of gender identity, drawn from California Interscholastic Federation guidelines:
The pupil and/or parents must contact the school administrator or athletic director indicating that the pupil has a consistent gender identity different than the gender listed on the pupil's school registration records, and that the student desires to participate in activities in a manner consistent with his/her gender identity.
The school may contact CIF for guidance.
If the school declines to allow the pupil to participate in activities in a manner consistent with his/her gender identity, at the request of the pupil and/or parent the
school administrator must contact the CIF office, which will assign a facilitator who will assist the school and pupil in preparation and completion of the CIF Gender Identity eligibility appeal process.
The pupil is to be scheduled for an appeal hearing before an eligibility committee specifically established to hear gender identity appeals.
A pupil may appeal the decision of the eligibility committee to the California Interscholastic Federation Executive Director.
So, NO! A student, even a "horny adolescent boy," may not show up one day and claim he is a girl for a day. That would seem to be at odds with the word "consistent."