Toilet training

[Gob]

A six-year-old US girl has become the unlikely poster child for the rights of transgender people after her school barred her from using the girls' bathroom.




The family of Coy Mathis has filed a civil rights lawsuit against her Colorado school over the issue, which has become a cause celebre since hitting the headlines this week, CNN reported on Thursday.

Coy was born a boy but according to her mother she started expressing herself as a girl at the age of 18 months.

When the behaviour continued, the parents sought medical advice and were told that their child was transgender - a little girl in a boy's body.

Though they diagnosed Coy as having a gender identity disorder, doctors recommended against surgery until she is older.


When the child was in kindergarten at Eagle Elementary School in Fountain, Colorado there was no problem because Coy was allowed to use the girls' bathroom.

But in December school officials told the family that Coy could no longer use the girls' facilities and would have to use the boys' or nurse's bathroom instead.

"That wasn't a safe environment for her," said Coy's mother Kathryn Mathis, a nurse.

"It set her up for a lot of harassment and it wasn't a place where we were able to let her be because we want her to be safe and we want her to be healthy."

Their case was taken up by the Transgender Legal Defence and Education Fund, which hopes that Coy's story will have far-reaching ramifications.

"For many transgender people, discrimination is a daily part of life. Unfortunately for Coy, it has started very early," lawyer Michael Silverman said.

"The world is going to be looking at the school [to] send a message to the world and teach tolerance, fair play and equal rights."

The school said its decision "took into account not only Coy, but other students in the building, their parents and the future impact a boy with male genitals using a girls' bathroom would have as Coy grew older".

Kathryn Mathis is not blind to the possibilities but fears the district will stigmatise her daughter at a crucial stage in her development.



"They're punishing a six-year-old for something that hasn't happened and may not happen," she told CNN on Thursday.

"Her body development is none of their business. That is up to her and her doctors in the future.

"Right now we need to be protecting a six-year-old, not a middle-schooler or a high-schooler."

"We are hoping that they will change their minds and they will teach that you can love somebody and accept somebody even if they are different."

The case has sparked strong reaction on social networks and news sites.

On CNN alone over 16,000 people had commented on the report by Thursday.

News of the case came amid signs of mounting acceptance in the US of alternative lifestyles.

The US Supreme Court is set to consider an appeal against a ban on gay marriage based on the fact that it violates the equal rights of gay couples.

So-called Proposition 8 was passed in a statewide California ballot in 2008 and a new Field Poll has suggested that 61 per cent of Californians now approve of same sex marriage, compared to 32 per cent opposed.

More than 100 prominent Republicans have filed a so-called friend-of-the-court brief urging it to strike down the gay marriage ban, the New York Times reported.

[Joe Guy]

The school said its decision "took into account not only Coy, but other students in the building, their parents and the future impact a boy with male genitals using a girls' bathroom would have as Coy grew older".

I'm trying to figure out what they meant by that. Where in a girl's bathroom would anyone see another a little girl's genitals unless she deliberately exposed herself?

Does the school official think there are urinals in the girl's bathroom that this child might accidentally use?

And how would other children's parents be affected by this?

[Scooter]

I suspect they are talking about other children knowing that she has male genitalia because they have heard about it, likely from their busybody parents gossiping about it in front of them, rather than because they have actually been made visible in the bathroom.

[Crackpot]

This sort of thing worries me. 18 months? Really? I think there is such a thing as being too encouraging/supportive

[Rick]

Get a note from that doctor and send him/her to the nurses restroom...

[Joe Guy]

This sort of thing worries me. 18 months? Really? I think there is such a thing as being too encouraging/supportive

That's the first thing I thought. I wonder what made the parents and doctor so sure that the child is a girl living inside a boy's body? How does an 18 month old boy start expressing himself as a girl?

It seems much too early to even consider whether or not the child may be gay, but to be sure that a child isn't supposed to be a boy sounds strange and makes me wonder more about the parents and doctor than the child.

[Scooter]

Get a note from that doctor and send him/her to the nurses restroom...

Tell the other nosy parker parents that if they can't handle having their children share a bathroom with this girl, they should send their kids to school with appropriately sized corks to help them hold it in until they get home.

[Rick]

Get a note from that doctor and send him/her to the nurses restroom...

Tell the other nosy parker parents that if they can't handle having their children share a bathroom with this girl, they should send their kids to school with appropriately sized corks to help them hold it in until they get home.

Or get a note from the doctor and have him/her use the nurses restroom...

[Sean]

At 18 months old the child hasn't even had a chance to act like a boy. Are the parents even aware of how children develop?

[Lord Jim]

I have issues with that 18 month thing too...

It seems to me that it would take a real crackpot to advise parents that their kid at 18 months was "transgendered" (or maybe somebody who's judgement was affected by a desire to make a name for him or herself in professional journals with a landmark case) and parents with highly questionable judgement to accept a diagnosis like that as a fact....(A diagnosis that apparently confirmed their own unprofessional conclusion.)

I'd like to know more about these parents....

And I'd also like to know more about what specifically led them to this conclusion....

[Scooter]

It doesn't say that the parents were advised at 18 months that the kid was transgender. It says the child began expressing herself as a girl at 18 months, and that at some later, unspecified time, but before the kid had finshed kindergarten (because she was using the girls' washroom then) they got medical advice and were told the child was transgender.

[Joe Guy]

It doesn't say that the parents were advised at 18 months that the kid was transgender. It says the child began expressing herself as a girl at 18 months, and that at some later, unspecified time, but before the kid had finshed kindergarten (because she was using the girls' washroom then) they got medical advice and were told the child was transgender.

What kind of information is used to determine that an 18 month old child is transgender?

That's just a plain nutshit diagnosis as far as I can tell.

Unless you can explain how a doctor could come to that conclusion I refuse to accept that opinion...

[Lord Jim]

I'm with Sean and Joe on this...

according to her mother she started expressing herself as a girl at the age of 18 months.

As someone who has two children, a boy and a girl, I have no idea what that would even mean at that age....

In thinking about it, I can't recall any pronounced behavioral differences between them at that age....

[dales]

Oh come now, Jim.

The child ADORED shopping.

[Scooter]

What kind of information is used to determine that an 18 month old child is transgender?

None, because no such determination was made when the child was 18 months old. Try actually reading the article this time.

[Lord Jim]

Oh come now, Jim.

The child ADORED shopping.

Yeah, or maybe when the mother thought the kid looked upset she asked what was wrong and the kid said "nothing" and then gave her the silent treatment....

But seriously folks....

I really have no idea what kind of criteria the mother could possibly have been using at 18 months to determine that the kid "started expressing herself as a girl"...

Did she lay a Barbie and a GI Joe on the floor and the kid grabbed the Barbie?

Did she put out a pink party dress and a pair of blue overalls and the kid reached for the party dress?

Stuff like that would be indicative of absolutely nothing at 18 months....

[Joe Guy]

What kind of information is used to determine that an 18 month old child is transgender?

None, because no such determination was made when the child was 18 months old. Try actually reading the article this time.

I did read the article.

Apparently, the words "expressing herself as a girl at the age of 18 months", followed by " when the behaviour continued" means that the diagnosis came possibly after at least one day after "18 months" in the opinion of your emotionally reactive nit-picking self.

[Scooter]

"When the behaviour continued" clearly indicates that some period of time passed between the parents first observing the behaviour and when they brought the child to a doctor, at which point the diagnosis was made. There is absolutely nothing to suggest that the diagnosis was made within the same month, as you keep insisting, and there is nothing "nit-picking" about pointing that out, since you (and others) insist on hinging your opinion of the doctor's diagnosis on that specific age. The child could have been 20 or 24 months old when she was diagnosed, or she could have been four or five years old. Nothing in the article allows us to narrow it down any more than that.

But like loCAtek, you have to cover for the fact that you made a mistake and misread the article, so you will continue to turn handstands to do so. Be my guest.

[Joe Guy]

"When the behaviour continued" clearly indicates that some period of time passed between the parents first observing the behaviour and when they brought the child to a doctor, at which point the diagnosis was made. There is absolutely nothing to suggest that the diagnosis was made within the same month, as you keep insisting, and there is nothing "nit-picking" about pointing that out, since you (and others) insist on hinging your opinion of the doctor's diagnosis on that specific age.

There is nothing in the article to indicate how old the child was when the diagnosis was made. You can continue to nit-pick if you'd like. The only reference to age is that the boy expressed himself as a girl at 18 months.

The child could have been 20 or 24 months old when she was diagnosed, or she could have been four or five years old. Nothing in the article allows us to narrow it down any more than that.

That's true. Based on the article it could have been anywhere from 18.1 months to 5 or 6 years.

But like loCAtek, you have to cover for the fact that you made a mistake and misread the article, so you will continue to turn handstands to do so. Be my guest.

No. But as you always do, you can't get past one small part of a much larger issue and you will continue to dwell on that and point out how wrong I am.

Now that I've read more on the subject, it's interesting to note that this boy is one of a set of triplets. That may have had some affect on his identity issue.

The other thing I wonder about is what happens when this child reaches puberty. What if the child suddenly finds an attraction to girls.

I'm guessing the psychologist and parents would say that he is a lesbian in a boy's body.

This kid is going to have a rough life.

[Rick]

I'll admit that I didn't care enough about the subject to even read the article, so of course I didn't see the part where it was already suggested that he use the nurses restroom.

But after seeing that I looked and didn't see anything about-

Tell the other nosy parker parents that if they can't handle having their children share a bathroom with this girl, they should send their kids to school with appropriately sized corks to help them hold it in until they get home.

"nosy parker parents"...