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Thursday, May 19, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
OPINION
LARA MOEHLMAN
EDITOR IN CHIEF
JEREMY KAPLAN
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
BRADLEY WHIPPLE
MANAGING EDITOR
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
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FROM THE DAILY
In response to the Board of
Education’s guidelines, Michigan
state Sen. Tom Casperson (R–
Escanaba) announced his plans for
a bill that requires students to use
bathrooms and locker rooms that
correspond with their “birth” sex.
If the student has written consent
from a parent or guardian, he or
she may use an alternative single-
occupancy restroom or a staff
member’s bathroom, according
to Casperson’s proposed bill. This
has stunted the progress to get
the State Board of Education’s
protective
and
inclusive
guidelines
for
transgender
students formalized, even after
a public comment period ended
last week. Such a maneuver is an
obstacle to Michigan’s inclusivity,
and we stand opposed to all
actions taken to obstruct these
inclusive guidelines’ approval.
While the nation may currently
be obsessed with a debate over
restrooms,
these
guidelines
barely discuss them. Most of
the
document
is
dedicated
to
suggestions
for
improving
transgender inclusivity through
recommendations
concerning
names, pronouns, sports and
dress codes in Michigan public
schools. Near the end, in a small
section titled “Restrooms,” the
State Board of Education provides
two
alternative
options
for
resolving the “bathroom” conflict.
The
guidelines
essentially
state that, in an ideal scenario,
students should be allowed to use
a restroom that corresponds to
their gender identity — regardless
of whether or not it corresponds
with
what’s
on
their
birth
certificate —, and, if the student
requests, they can gain access to
a gender neutral restroom or staff
member’s restroom.
The
paragraph
for
“Locker
Rooms or Changing Facilities,”
however, does not recommend for
full inclusivity in locker rooms.
Instead, the guidelines recommend
the
student
use
an
adjusted
changing schedule or a private area
(in the facility or nearby). These
kinds of alternatives may result
in the student feeling stigmatized
and
excluded.
Such
was
the
case in Illinois, where the U.S.
Department of Education’s Office
of Civil Rights ruled that Chicago’s
Township High School District
211 violated a a transgender teen’s
rights in requiring her to use a
separate designated area instead of
the girls’ locker room.
Beyond
the
isolation
of
transgender students is another
problematic aspect of the State
Board of Education’s guidelines:
the recommendation of discretion
in locker room usage “determined
on
a
case-by-case
basis.”
Claiming that these decisions on
inclusivity are subject to a case-
by-case discretion gives cover for
discriminatory, bigoted policy that
doesn’t have the interest of affected
students at heart.
Furthermore, while the current
political environment may be toxic
to radical change, we hope that one
day the state will turn the State
Board of Education’s proposed
guidelines
for
transgender
inclusivity into truly enforceable
action. Only then will we have a
positive learning environment for
all LGBTQ students of all ages in
our state.
Two months ago, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed a bill banning
transgender individuals from using public bathrooms that don’t match
the sex on their birth certificates. The bill resulted in numerous protests
and lawsuits. Even before this discussion re-entered the national
discourse, the Michigan State Board of Education was considering
providing schools with formal but non-binding guidelines for a safe
and supportive learning environment for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) students. These guidelines
suggest that schools allow students to choose their own gender, name,
pronouns and bathrooms without the input of parents, doctors or the
school. The Board of Education’s guidelines call for equal treatment
for transgender students while suggesting that only the student can
determine their gender identity.
O
ut of all of the pressures
placed on us in college, the
pressure to have a broad
social circle and
loyal
friends
may be the most
confusing. The
pressure to get a
good grade can be solved by studying,
the pressure to feel involved can be
solved by joining organizations on
campus, but the pressure to make
deep and meaningful connections
with other people doesn’t have
an easy solution. Social media,
where people often flaunt their
friendships by posting group photos
and commenting on each other’s
statuses, only works to exacerbate
this pressure. In some cases, people
can put their time and effort into an
organization on campus and thus
make friends, but it doesn’t always
work out this way for everyone. We
are constantly surrounded by people
our own age, with similar interests
and similar schedules — so why is
it so hard for some of us to make
friends and form a social group?
In high school, friendships were
easier to make and sustain. For the
most part, we saw the same people
multiple times each day, and due to
high school’s rigid social structure,
it was fairly easy to tell whom our
circle of friends were. At least this
was how it worked in my case
— I attended a school where my
graduating class was 90 people, most
of whom I had known since middle
school. I remember that before
coming to college, a lot of authority
figures told me that at a university, I
could decide whom my “real” friends
were, that they would no longer be
based on convenience. And for the
most part this has been true; I have
been able to make a lot of new friends
at the University of Michigan, the
foundations of these friendships
based on more than accessibility. So,
in my experience, meeting potential
friends hasn’t been the issue here at
the University, it has been finding
ways to sustain these friendships.
Let me tell you a little bit more
about myself. I had a very close friend
throughout childhood whom I had a
falling-out with, and I believe that the
source of this falling-out was because
one of us decided to switch schools
and neither of us were very good at
keeping up with communication.
Recently, I tried to reconnect, but
she essentially told me that she
wasn’t interested in any chance at
reconciliation. After hearing this, I
felt I was incapable of maintaining
a friendship. This was especially
daunting to realize as I am planning
to spend the next full academic year
abroad in China. I was worried that
the friendships that I had made at
college would go the same way as
my childhood friendships — that we
would stop talking and that the end
of our friendships would be clouded
in confusion and anger. I desperately
wanted to keep these friendships —
friendships that, though not based on
convenience, are easily maintained
because we all live in the same city
and have similar schedules. I wasn’t
sure how I was going to keep this
interaction up while I was thousands
of miles away and in a different time
zone.
I’m still figuring it out. I haven’t
left for China yet, so I still have time
to come up with a plan of action
for how I am going to sustain my
friendships. But recently I’ve found
that trying harder is a good place to
start. The friends that I have that
don’t live in my dorm, I’ve tried to
learn their schedules and invite them
to hang out more. I try to leave the
comfort of my dorm more often so
that I can visit my friends who don’t
live in the same building as me. I try
to be the first to initiate contact with
somebody whom I think I could
become friends with — something I
never did in high school. I’ve started
to value myself as a friend — I try
to see myself as a person that other
people would want to be associated
with,
which
makes
me
more
confident when trying to establish
connections. And, most importantly,
I’ve decided to focus mainly on my
individual friendships and not on the
group dynamic. It can be exhausting
making sure that all of your friends
are also friends with each other and
ensuring that your circle of friends is
in good shape.
When it comes down to it, I’ve
found that perfect friendships aren’t
really something that exist. Though
it may seem that everybody around
you has the perfect squad, I bet that
upon closer inspection, things aren’t
as impeccable as you would think. I
think that the most important part of
making good friends in college is to
take care of yourself — get rid of the
friends that drain you, and hold on to
the friends that lift you up. As we all
have learned by now, there is no part
of our lives that will ever be perfect —
so why should we expect our friend
groups to be perfect? All we can do
is protect ourselves and be kind to
those who have been kind to us.
—Elena Hubbell can be reached
at elepearl@umich.edu.
ELENA
HUBBELL
Roland Davidson, Caitlin Heenan, Jeremy Kaplan,
Madeline Nowicki, Kevin Sweitzer, Brooke White.
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