By Agoritis, a University School student
In the wake of North Carolina’s controversial law that required transgender people to use bathrooms in public buildings that match the sex on their birth certificate rather than the gender they feel best fits their identity, issues relating to transgender Americans have come to greater national attention than perhaps ever before. For most of the country, this presents a great opportunity to use the common will to extend protection to another group of marginalized Americans. Indeed, perhaps the greatest legacy of our country is the progressive extension of rights to one more group with every age.
However, for an all boys school, a focus on how society should treat transgender people presents some difficult questions that have heretofore been ignored by the administration. Most principally, and as a prerequisite to any other concerns over policy regarding transgender issues, is the question of what defines a “boy” at an all boys school, and accordingly, who can and who cannot come to US.
US currently self-categorizes as “single sex”. The use of the word “sex” rather than gender is key. This means we currently delineate who is a “boy” based on the physical body parts that the student has, presenting an important problem that has not yet been reckoned with. What will the administration’s policy be towards a students who’s sex is not male (that is, born possessing non-male body parts, like breasts) but who’s gender is male (that is, self-identifying as a boy)? Will University School tell applicants that their genitals matter more than their personal identity? It would be smart for it not to.
It is time to move from the age of single sex to the age of single gender. The term “single sex” dates back to a time when the distinction between gender and sex was rarely understood if even acknowledged. Hanging on to it now is an unwarranted appeal to outdated tradition. US should embrace a change in emphasis from biological categorization to a focus on the identity of the student. Generally in life, but especially in education, what is in the mind matters much more than what is on the body. Categorization based on sex teaches our community that the body one is born with is what matters, while categorization based on gender demonstrates that the way one understands them self is what matters. Single sex discriminates based on features; single gender delineates based on identity. This recognition requires a definition of “boy” along the lines of gender identity rather than physical sex.
In approaching the 2016-17 school year, I encourage the administration to publicly announce that the school will accept any student who self identifies as male, regardless of physical sex, in addition to any student who is physically male that feels they would be comfortable at US. This means that someone who would have been placed at HB or Laurel in the past will now walk the halls of US. A change though it is, acceptance in this way is essential to not only respecting the changing times, but embracing progress.
The new focus of transgender issues, if it is sustained, will be an important time in our school’s history. If handled inclusively, it presents an enormous opportunity to University School to be a progressive landmark for other boys and girls schools in a new age. If squandered, it will make us look stuck in the past at best and intolerant at worst.