A bathroom stall – Photo: Tom Rogerson, via Unsplash.
A Tennessee mother says she’s worried for the safety of her transgender son after he was harassed and threatened by a group of boys while using the boys’ bathroom. But it’s her son who could potentially face punishment as schools attempt to comply with a recently passed law governing transgender bathroom use.
Sherri Yandle, of Murfreesboro, claims her son, Tobi, a 16-year-old junior at Siegel High School, was given permission by the school to use single-stall faculty bathrooms. But when he found them locked, with no other alternatives, he decided to use the boys’ bathroom. Video footage from school security cameras backs up Tobi’s story that he only resorted to the boys’ bathroom after finding the faculty bathrooms locked.
“He ducked into the boys room and went into the first stall he saw available,” Yandle told CBS affiliate WTVF. “Then he said some boys started chanting transphobic slurs, and then it go louder and louder… They started hitting and kicking at the stall door, so Tobi had to use his back to brace it and then put his foot on the toilet to keep the door shut.”
Tobi texted a friend for help during the attack. Eventually, an assistant principal — later identified by news outlets as Lorie Gober — intervened to stop the abuse.
“When finally somebody came in to clear out the bathroom, the assistant principal found Tobi in the bathroom stall, crying, scared to death,” Yandle told the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal. “I think the scenario going through Tobi’s head was they were going to physically harm him.”
Yandle says the assistant principal who intervened to protect Tobi did not immediately punish those involved, later telling Yandle that a new Tennessee law empowers the students who attacked her son to sue the school if they object to his presence in boys’ facilities.
“She stated because of Governor Lee’s laws that the other students could sue the school if they didn’t like it that a transgender child [was] in the bathroom,” Yandle said. “I’d like to see these boys held accountable for what they did to my son, regardless of the reason.”
Under the law, signed into effect by Gov. Bill Lee (R) earlier this year, schools can be sued by cisgender students or their parents for “psychological, emotional, and physical harm suffered” if they become upset at seeing a transgender person using a multi-person bathroom or locker room that does not match their assigned sex at birth.
James Evans, a spokesperson for Rutherford County Schools, said in a joint statement with the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office that the school district will investigate any allegations of sexual harassment or discrimination under Title IX, the act prohibiting sex-based discrimination in educational institutions.
“Although the school district has not been contacted directly by this parent, an assistant principal at the school has spoken with the student and the student’s mother concerning an alleged incident in the bathroom, although there are some variances in the story,” the statement reads.
“Rutherford County Schools does have a policy in place that allows students or employees to use private, single stall bathrooms if needed and requested. The state of Tennessee also has enacted a new law concerning transgender students and bathroom use, and the school district is required to follow this law.”
It remains unclear whether any of the students involved in the attack will face criminal charges or discipline from school administrators.
Thus far, no disciplinary action has been taken against Tobi, either. But some critics of the new law fear it will give administrators significant leeway to punish transgender students in order to placate those with anti-LGBTQ views and avoid a costly lawsuit.
“I don’t understand why my son would be punished when he’s the victim of what to me is a hate crime,” Yandle said. “[The school is] not supposed to let any child be bullied, and all children are supposed to be safe when they go to school and in that instance, I feel like this school failed.”
In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), 213 Democratic U.S. representatives, as well as Delegates Stacey Plaskett (Virgin Islands), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.), and Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández (Puerto Rico), are demanding that Johnson rebuke Republican lawmakers for using "demonizing and dehumanizing" language when speaking about the transgender community.
"We write to you to strongly condemn the rise in anti-transgender rhetoric, including from members of Congress, and to urge you to ensure members of Congress are following rules of decorum and not using their platforms to demonize and scapegoat any marginalized community, including the transgender community," the Democrats' letter reads.
Federal Judge Victoria Calvert has permanently blocked a portion of Georgia’s law banning prisoners from receiving gender-affirming care, ruling on Dec. 3 that the state’s blanket ban on hormone therapy violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in May and implemented in July, the law bars prisoners from receiving hormone therapy or other treatment for gender dysphoria -- even when a doctor deems it medically necessary. It prohibits the state from funding such care and blocks transgender inmates from paying for it themselves. Non-transgender prisoners, however, may still receive hormone therapy and other gender-affirming treatments so long as the care is not related to gender transition.
Dutch authorities say Veronica Clifford-Carlos failed to prove she faces a "legitimate risk of persecution" or threat of physical harm in the United States.
A Dutch court has upheld a ruling rejecting a U.S. transgender woman's bid for asylum, finding she does not face a substantial enough threat of persecution in her home country.
Veronica Clifford-Carlos, a 28-year-old visual artist from California, said she once believed she’d build a life in the United States, but felt compelled to flee after receiving death threats over her gender identity.
Clifford-Carlos left the United States -- leaving behind friends and her dog -- and flew to the Netherlands with her father. Upon arrival, she applied for asylum, telling authorities about the abuse she endured in the United States, particularly after President Donald Trump’s re-election last fall.
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