For the record, the woman quoted here and being called “transphobic trash” said that in defense of the child. She was defending her right to use the girl’s bathroom. She also publicly spoke out in defense of the child and was fired for it.
What she was saying was apart of what was stated in her blog post, where she was talking about the self harm and mental health issues of transgender youth, and how much more likely they are to be stable if they have an accepting adult in their life and if the school accepts them.
“I’m very worried about that child’s mental health and well being.” What she meant by this was if the girl couldn’t use the girl’s bathroom and felt isolated and ostracized and not welcome in the school she was worried she’d self harm or worse and was defending the child and calling out the school.
Also, the issue here isn’t so black and white. The school did put in a gender neutral bathroom for this sake, they are not telling her to use the boy’s bathroom, what Patricia Grell (the quoted woman) is saying is that still isolates the child and tells her and the other kids they aren’t normal. (Which I agree.)
Here’s a few quotes from her post:
“I can’t help but see parallels between how African Americans were made to use “black only” washrooms and this transgender student being made to use the gender neutral bathroom.“
“And the arguments are petty and ridiculous but they also can cause grave harm. Canada Journal published on May 7, 2015, a study of transgender youth that showed that in the past year, two thirds of transgender youth had harmed themselves, more than one third had attempted suicide and a third of those under the age of 18 had been physically threatened or injured. The study’s author Elizabeth Saewyc found that “If someone had a supportive adult in the family, they were about four times less likely to have self-harmed in the past 12 months. If they felt more connected to school, they were almost twice as likely to report good or excellent mental health as those with lower levels of school connectedness.”This study shows that we must take seriously the importance of supporting transgender students in our schools.”
“If there are some parents who do not understand our stance, then we need to educate them about what the research is showing: that with appropriate support in their schools, our LGBTQ students have less inclination to self harm.”
If you read the article, you would also know she was fired for this.
Here’s more of her from the article:
“Catholic school trustee Patricia Grell recently wrote a blog post supporting the girl. She then turned on the TV news and learned that board chair Debbie Engel has called on her resignation.“I am not resigning over this social justice issue,” Grell told CBC News on Thursday. “This little girl needs advocates. She needs people like us, trustees, to stand up for her."Grell said she wrote the blog because she couldn’t keep silent on the issue."I didn’t want to be identified with that decision,” she said.As the school district has no formal policy, Grell said can’t understand how the decision was made.”
Guys, I can’t stress this enough, please research and fact check. Because you just called a Christian woman promoting other Christians to be more accepting of LGBT issues, and why it mattered, and one of the few people to stand up for this girl “transphobic trash”. When she’s been very influential in the change.
And here’s the full quote:
“Grell said an Ontario Human Rights Commission decision ordered Hockey Canada to allow those who are transgender to use the change room of their choice. That’s the answer, Grell said.“I’m really worried about the impact of this stance we’ve taken on that child,” Grell said. “I’m very worried about that child’s mental health and well-being.”
The transphobic person is Debbie Engel (among likely others).
And I want to be clear here, there’s Christians defending the child. This is important, not because “don’t judge all Christians” (though, it’s not OK to judge any group by a few bad people in it)) guys, there’s hope. That’s important to remember. It’s getting better. It’s going slow but it is. In fact the fact that they made a neutral bathroom isn’t OK, but it’s still progress over telling her to use the boy’s bathroom. (This doesn’t mean I’m defending their decision, I’m not.) It’s important to remember that, not to not criticize, but for the mental health of those effected.
And if you do want to make this a religious issue (not saying that was the intent), then I urge you to read the comments, there’s a lot of transphobic people claiming they aren’t Christian, but agree that they shouldn’t even be able to use the neutral bathroom (there’s even one saying they’re sexualizing their child, the child has literally been professionally prescribed with gender dysphoria, I just, ugh.). If you make it about religion you let these people slip through, and that’s not OK. Make it about being transphobic, not what they classify themselves as. It’ll help everyone out in the long run, I promise.