17 School Districts Confirm "Conservative Horror Stories" Regarding Trans Bathroom Rights Are False

(map via GLSEN)

With today's announcement by the federal Departments of Education and Justice on protections for transgender students, it's important to debunk the often-told myth that transgender "bathroom rights" somehow leads to predators dressing as women to prey on female students in school bathrooms.

Media Matters took a comprehensive look into the matter:

Conservative media outlets have attacked transgender-inclusive non-discrimination policies in schools by claiming they create confusion, violate students' privacy rights, and can be exploited by students who will pretend to be transgender in order to sneak into the restrooms for the opposite sex and behave inappropriately.

Media Matters Contacted Officials At The Largest School Districts In 12 States With Gender Identity Protections On The Books. Media Matters contacted school district officials in states with laws prohibiting discrimination in public schools on the basis of gender identity and asked whether they had experienced "any incidences of harassment or inappropriate behavior" as a result of "allowing transgender students to access facilities they're comfortable with." Media Matters specifically raised the oft-heard criticism that protecting transgender students will "result in confusion, harassment, or inappropriate behavior" such as "students pretending to be transgender to sneak into locker rooms or bathrooms."

The responses from across the country were overwhelmingly the same: Seventeen school districts covering 600,000 students experienced no problems after implementing transgender protections.