The LGBT Community Center has long had gender-neutral bathrooms. But, they are individual use. PrideFest made its open public bathroom policy official last year. I was there and overheard one man’s objection. That was quickly countered by his friend’s explanation. He also pointed out the signage that clarified PrideFest’s bathroom etiquette. Befuddled, the first guy begrudgingly acknowledged the change.
Meanwhile, there’s been national movement on the issue. The results have been mixed and, in some areas, contentious. Iowa’s Senate recently passed a law defending transgender rights. But, North Carolina’s Republican state government just crushed a local LGBT rights ordinance that provided bathroom access according to gender identity. Wisconsin, despite our history of being on the forefront of gay and lesbian equality, is trying to restrict trans rights. Yet some cities are moving forward. Most recently Janesville passed LGBT protections.
Then there’s Kenosha. Currently, it does not adequately recognize LGBT rights. There, a 16-year-old transgender boy, Ashton Whitaker, a Tremper High School junior, is running for Prom King. At first, his royal ambitions faced his school administration’s opposition. Although he identifies as male, the best his school would offer was to allow him to run for Prom Queen. But, after a bit of protest and a petition signed by thousands nationwide, a higher authority, the Kenosha Unified School District, relented. Having fulfilled the criteria to contend for the Prom Court, and identifying as male, he could run for Prom King. However, he is still not allowed to use the boys’ bathroom—he’s been threatened with disciplinary action if he does.
And, as is often the case, the various online news segments covering the contested crown received dozens of reader comments. Aside from unscientific pontifications on gender, invocations of God and Donald Trump, as well as the obligatory expletive-laced invectives, there was a modicum of civil discussion. Perhaps that’s the important part. For change to take place there has to be dialogue and education. In today’s mass media forum, that includes many voices—from the shrill and manic to the sane and measured. That should lead to an informed understanding and, hopefully, to a well-considered decision to dismantle, as Whitaker himself so eloquently phrased it, the “resistance and insistent discrimination toward transgender identity.”
But even if that happens and Wisconsin’s local governments like Janesville’s pass anti-discrimination laws, the specter of our state apparatus intervening to block them is very real. The debunked “bathroom predator” myth is their defense. Unfortunately, it is just another conservative attempt to deny rights to LGBT people. Under the guise of religious rights or a skewed argument for smaller government, it is the Republican strategy to pressure and undermine local authorities when they dare to defend equality. Besides, many, like Milwaukee, are Democratic bastions, and targets of Republican state government retribution. We’ve already seen it happen with the city’s residency requirement for municipal employees.
Meanwhile, Ash Whitaker can enjoy his high school prom, perhaps even as its King. But, crown or not, he has written another chapter in Wisconsin’s LGBT struggle for equality.
