Advocates rally for transgender-supportive student bathrooms at Fayette schools

At a Central Office rally Monday, members of the LGBTQ community asked the Fayette County Board of Education to support transgender students, specifically as it pertains to school bathrooms.

Trans kids are especially vulnerable to discrimination and bullying in schools and what bathrooms they use are an issue in a new controversial state law, rally organizer Mason Chernosky said as at least 20 people rallied outside Central Office.

Chernosky said after talking to school board chairman Tyler Murphy on Monday before the school board meeting, “I have full faith that the Fayette County Board of Education is going to do the right thing and support trans kids.”

“Fayette County Public Schools has been and remains committed to both following the letter of the law and creating a welcoming, supportive, and safe environment for all students,” said district spokesperson Lisa Deffendall.

Fayette County Public Schools at a school board meeting Monday held public comment, which is required under Senate Bill 150.

Among the several people who asked the school board to allow trans kids to use gender neutral bathrooms and commit to building gender neutral single-occupancy bathrooms at every school in the district was Rebecca Blankenship.

A member of the Berea Independent school board, Blankenship is the first openly transgender public official in Kentucky.

SB 150 was a GOP priority bill approved by the 2023 General Assembly that Republicans said protected school children and Democrats said was anti-LGBTQ.

Under SB 150, boards of education must adopt policies to “not allow students to use restrooms, locker rooms, or shower rooms that are reserved for students of a different biological sex” after allowing public comment on the issue at an open meeting.

School districts are required to provide “the best available accommodation” to students who assert that their gender is different from their biological sex and whose parent or guardian provides written consent.

Under the new law, the “accommodation shall not include the use of school restrooms, locker rooms, or shower rooms designated for use by students of the opposite biological sex while students of the opposite biological sex are present or could be present.”

Chernosky said advocates at the rally were asking the school board to allow trans kids to use gender neutral bathrooms and want the district to commit to building gender neutral single-occupancy bathrooms at every school in the district. He said Senate Bill 150 is unconstitutional and “dangerous for all kids.”

Advocates at the rally were specifically asking Fayette school board members to:

▪ Designate bathrooms and private changing/shower areas as gender-neutral so trans students can use them in compliance with state law.

▪ Build gender-neutral, single-occupancy student bathrooms and changing/shower rooms at every high school by 2026, middle school by2028, and every school by 2030.

▪ Add those single-occupancy student bathrooms and changing/shower rooms to every new building built from now on.

▪ Petition Frankfort for additional construction funding.

Katarina Hoskins, an elementary school teacher in Fayette County and a sexual health researcher at the University of Kentucky, said she was at the rally “to do what I can to convince Fayette County Public Schools not to move forward with honoring the changes that Senate Bill 150 would enact.”

“I believe that it would be incredibly damaging to our students, refusing them vital sexual health information I feel is wrong,” said Hoskins.

At the public hearing, several parents and others spoke for and against having school bathrooms that are supportive of transgender students. Shavahn Loux spoke in favor of them. She said before her son, a transgender boy, came out as being transgender, he became dehydrated because he didn’t want to use the bathroom at school.

Heather Cherry said she supported SB 150. She said sexuality issues should be taught by parents, not left to public education.

SB 150 also bans gender identity and sexual orientation instruction, but the Fayette school board is following some recently announced state guidance that suggests it does not have to apply to middle and high school students.

Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, was the sponsor of SB 150. In an earlier statement, Wise said the KDE’s guidance was “an absurd effort to skirt state law.”

This story was originally published June 26, 2023 at 6:40 PM.