Since joining the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 2003, Emilia Lombardi has never had to worry much about which bathroom facilities she should use on the Oakland campus. The choice was simple: As a transgender person who identifies as a woman, it’s always made sense for her to use the ladies’ room.

“I have never had any issue using any [women-only] bathroom or changing facility,” Lombardi says. “I can’t see myself using the men’s room.”

Now she might have to.

On March 20, a university official informed Pitt’s Anti-Discriminatory Policies Committee that transgender students and faculty must use bathroom facilities that match the gender on their birth certificate rather than the gender with which they identify. Since news of the controversial policy broke in the Pitt News student newspaper, critics have condemned it as a potentially harmful move that violates the university’s anti-discrimination policy, which prohibits discrimination “on the basis of … gender identity and expression.”

“A lot of people were really shocked that they had taken such a harsh position,” says Jane Feuer, who chairs the ADPC, which advises the University Senate on issues regarding discrimination. “It was just dropped on us like a bomb.”

Before the announcement, Feuer says, the university never had a formal bathroom policy. Instead, she says, Pitt officials dealt with concerns about the use of restrooms on a case-by-case basis.

That’s what happened late last year at the Pitt-Johnstown branch campus, where a transgender student who identifies as male was expelled for using the men’s locker room.

The ADPC unanimously passed a resolution in February charging that the expulsion violated Pitt’s anti-discrimination policy. The committee also stated that students should be allowed to use bathrooms that match the gender with which they identify, and asked for a specific policy regarding bathroom usage for transgender people.

It got that policy during a March 20 ADPC meeting, when a university official representing Pitt’s HR and legal departments informed the committee of it. Transgender people, the official said, are prohibited from using bathroom facilities of the gender they identify with, unless they furnish a birth certificate matching that sex.

University officials have not been eager to discuss the policy. Even the official who disclosed it to the ADPC, for example, has not been identified; ADPC members say the person requested to remain anonymous. Robert Hill, Pitt’s vice chancellor of public affairs, declined to directly respond to an emailed list of questions about the policy. Instead, he emailed a statement that Pitt’s non-discrimination policy, as applied to restrooms, means that a student or faculty member can use the bathroom of “his or her declared gender identity after he or she has obtained a birth certificate designating the declared gender.”

“This does not represent a change in policy,” the email continues. “Rather, it is an articulation of a longstanding University practice.”

Rayden Sorock, a local advocate for transgender rights, says the policy is problematic for several reasons. For starters, changing the gender on a birth certificate requires sex-reassignment surgery, which is very costly and not always desired by transgendered people.

“[The policy] assumes that people want to change their bodies, and that they can afford to,” says Sorock.

Feuer says the University Senate is forming a committee to look into Pitt’s bathroom policy. In the meantime, she says, the ADPC is still trying to discuss the matter with university officials.

As for Lombardi, she has no plans of using the men’s bathroom.

“For my own safety,” she says, “I have to continue to use the same facilities.”

This article appears in Apr 4-10, 2012.

E-mail Chris Young about this story.

62 replies on “Pitt bathroom policy surprises, outrages transgender faculty, students”

  1. What about those of us from states that don’t allow changes to birth certificates at all?

  2. I have a beard and a male voice, they really expect women to be comfortable with me in their restrooms?

  3. @Jack

    Just do it anyway. When people freak out let them know you have no choice. I think your side of the fence has much more power to change this unfortunate situation. People in the majority care much more when it’s them that are inconvenienced than when it’s us.

  4. Seriously so dumb. Let people use whatever bathroom they want, its not going to hurt anyone. Segregated bathrooms are silly now anyway.

    The use for them was worrying that the other sex was gonna oggle you in the bathroom, but since we allow gay and lesbian people in the bathrooms then that thought is kind of silly. If someone looks like a girl, dresses like a girl, then how do you think shes going to be treated in the mens room? Shes between a rock and a hard place on this campus.

  5. I remember sitting in a committee meeting with Robert Hill, discussing LGBTQ terminology, where he told us he didn’t know what a transgender person was.

    When I explained what the term meant, he waved his hand at me and said, “Well, that’s never going to come up here. We don’t have anyone like that.”

    And I thought to myself: “Really? ‘Cause you’re looking at one right now.”

    This is just appalling and amateurish, but sadly typical of a university with a cowardly Board of Trustees that is reactionary and frightened of Pennsylvania’s tea-party-led government.

    I notice they’re can’t even defend their own policy in public.

  6. And just to add, as a transgendered person? When I use the restroom? I’m there for one reason only. Shouldn’t that be obvious? For pete’s sake, leave us alone, we just need to pee.

  8. I can’t help but suspect this policy was designed to be deliberately degrading and insulting. I imagine they envisioned a policy that would shame trans people for their very existence every time they need to urinate.

  10. As a future Grad school student, I can tell you this sort of policy will direct justice minded students to not apply for your school.

    Further, many states (such as Kentucky, Ohio, Texas, and others) do not allow for you to change gender on your birth records for any reason. This means it would be possible for a person identifying as a woman(or man) with the genitalia of a woman(or man) could come to your school need to change or use the bathroom, and get told they need to use the wrong bathroom for every possible presentation of their sex/gender other than a document they keep in their safe at home.

    Finally, the NCAA has made strong rulings and policies regarding gender variance within college sports and college inclusiveness, and these policies that U of Pitt has written VIOLATE those policies!!!! If you enjoy your sports funding, and you enjoy being part of the NCAA you would be wise to change your policies towards more inclusiveness.

  11. So everyone should carry around there Birth Certificate,to show the ” piss ” police your “junk”…or your female ?

  12. What about people like me, who were born in TN where you can’t change your birth certificate, but are post-op? No way in hell I’d use a men’s room.

  13. Most colleges with these policies have single stall co ed facilities for the transgender community. A transgender person is put in a situation where there is laws against both restrooms. If a man uses a woman’s bathroom or vise versa by state law they need a matching state ID, so if the birth certificate doesn’t match the ID then then they are in violation anyway? Doesn’t make sense, In Massachusetts, we can not change out birth certificate till we are post op, but, we can change our gender marker on our ID when it is ok’d by our Psychologist and Medical Doctor. In California, you have to see a judge….. Eventually we should be able to change it on our SS#, ……… We have a long way to go.

  14. Does this guy realize that college students don’t generally have money? It takes a shitload of money to have surgery. I’m in college and cannot even imagine how much more debt I’d be under if I tried to get surgery now.

  15. Sooooo, if a student who has an infant boy needs to take him into the women’s room with her so she can change his diaper, the big bad Pitt 5-0 is going to kick the baby out? Bathroom rules like this have no place in reality.

  16. Doesn’t anybody realise that a transgendered person’s physical gender is a mistake of nature? Their true gender is the one that is inside that erroneous body. It is the gender entry on the birth certificate that is wrong! The physical body is WRONG! The person inside is the correct gender. Wake up and get your facts right, world!

  17. The people who made this decision must know nothing of transgender related policy. Additionally, they must have failed to consult a single person who was even remotely aware of transgender issues.

    If they had done so, it would have become obvious that there are several states, one of which literally right next to Pittsburgh., which DO NOT allow transgender people to ever change their birth certificate, regardless of what form of medical, surgical, or legal intervention they undertake. Plus in the majority of states people are able to change their driver’s license without changing their birth certificate. So why is the birth certificate used in this policy?

    Not only is the policy cissexist, but it is also completely uninformed. This decision goes completely against the trend in public policy that lets transgender people decide what facilities are safest for them to use.

  18. I am a transgender female and I DARE some idiotic government goon to even attempt to stop me from using the woman’s bathroom.

    There will be a few less government goons on this planet when I finish with them.

  19. “University officials have not been eager to discuss the policy. Even the official who disclosed it to the ADPC, for example, has not been identified; ADPC members say the person requested to remain anonymous. “

    i’m sorry, but since when do people get to introduce policies or bills/laws AND remain anonymous? If you don’t want negative attention for introducing a controversial, discriminatory policy… then don’t introduce it. You can’t expect to subject a community to this prejudiced scrutiny and not expect a little scrutiny in return. Hypocrites.

  20. I went to Wyotech in Blairsville, PA and am male to female transgender. After I came out at school, I was not comfortable using the male facilities because the school was predominatly males between 18 and 21. I feared Personal harm would come to me if i used the male restroom. The staff, including the campus president, Arthur Herman, informed me that I could only use the restrooms appropriate to my gender at birth. no reasons were given, but they did allow me to use the faculty restrooms in the administration building, but I was verbally repromanded for using the female faculty restroom.

    I think that they and UPitt need to reevaluate how their Trans students are treated. a good friend of mine attends UPJ and her husband attends IUP. I will forward them a link to this article and ask them to comment on how they feel about this.

  21. I can’t believe any user of the bathrooms wants this rule. When a woman encounters an obvious man in the ladies’ room, is she going to feel any better about it if he whips out his birth certificate and shows that legally he’s a woman?

  22. This kinda stuff makes me glad I’m in Canada. Not so many…Weird things?

    I don’t know how it works in the states, but here before you can even take hormones you have to do a 2 year “Real life experience”, then a few years of hormone blockers and the hormones themselves. So even if you could afford it at 19 or early 20’s, chances are you wouldnt be allowed to get the SRS anyway. Furthermore, say if I took my hormones and grew the facial hair Ive always wanted, chances are, Im not gonna fit in with the ladies room crowd.

  23. I thought universities were supposed to be open and accepting places? This seems like a policy from 2 decades ago. I hope they are ready to pay when they lose a lawsuit.

  24. I could see policies such as this leading to altered birth certificates out of desperation, and ignorance from people who need to be in control, and enforce policies to hurt other people but themselves. I truly hope this would hurt the enrollment for this university.

  25. I don’t recall seeing anyone naked in a public bathroom recently, and I think nearly all bathrooms have private stalls. Why is gender identity always about bathrooms?

  26. This is obviously transphobic, but has anyone stopped to think about how this will impact EVERYONE and not just trans people? Are they really going to require all students, staff, and faculty to carry around their birth certificate in case anyone asks them for it? If you don’t have your birth certificate on you will you be denied access to either bathroom?

    I imagine that would be true for everyone, because only forcing trans people to carry their birth certificates would clearly be discriminatory, and also unenforceable because you can’t always tell someone is trans just by looking at them.

  28. Requiring a transgender person to use the bathroom not matching their presentation would be very visible. It would immediately divulge their medical condition (being under treatment or having been treated for being transgender.) This privacy violation would probably be illegal under HIPAA.

  29. I am not a student of Pitt, but as a person in transition but currently unable to afford GRS, I still would not subject myself as well as women to my presence in the womens rest room. Even before transitioning, I was nearly subjected to violence for being in a womens restroom, as well as making women uncomfortable with my presence.

    As asked by another commenter, how do they intend to enforce this and exactly why is it important to do so? It is a place in which people typically spend less than 5 minutes, depending on their activity. Requiring that trans people use a bathroom that does not reflect their identity is not only stressful, but also dangerous. But them being cis, I could imagine they could never conceive the troubles trans people must face when it comes to something as simple as dispelling waste in a public facility.

  30. Have these f̶u̶c̶k̶t̶a̶r̶d̶s̶ idiots really got nothing better to do with their time than introduce astonishingly ridiculous policies which are of benefit to nobody whatsoever? Whoever introduced and pushed for such a f̶u̶c̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶r̶i̶d̶i̶c̶u̶l̶o̶u̶s̶ ̶t̶r̶a̶n̶s̶p̶h̶o̶b̶i̶c̶ ̶p̶i̶e̶c̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶b̶u̶l̶l̶s̶h̶i̶t̶ bathroom usage policy clarification s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶f̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶P̶i̶t̶t̶s̶b̶u̶r̶g̶h̶ ̶Z̶o̶o̶ should be ousted from their positions. And consider starting their own political party named to reflect their true values, such as “Hate filled Xenophobic Right Wing Pseudo Christian Party”, either that or just join the Republican Party. It’s 6 of one or half dozen of the other at the end of the day…

  31. wow i should go there with my female birth certificate and they would be shocked at my presence..

  32. Though not a student at PITT, as a gay man I find this policy absolutely absurd.
    Changing one’s sex marker on a birth certificate does not only require SRS/a certified letter stating such from a physician, but it is not legal in every state. Texas, for instance, doesn’t allow a change in the sex marker on a birth-certificate, nor an amended change. So even if a transgender individual has completed costly SRS and gone to the expense and trouble to change their sex marker on all other official federal/state/city/educational and retail documents, it is still conceivable that their birth certificate will not match their current gender identity/expression.

  33. Jason Jenkins, by an “obvious man” who is legally a woman, you must mean a female-to-male transgendered person who obviously dresses and appears male, but has not changed their birth certificate from female.

    Because transgender male-to-female people are not “obvious men,” they are “obvious women” – which is why, as the people describe in the article, they use restrooms of their gender identity with no problem.

  34. It also assumes that having sex reassignment surgery will result in a change to a person’s birth certificate. There are some states that will not change the sex on a person’s birth certificate no matter how much therapy, hormones, and surgery they go through.

  35. I think the time has come to emulate lunch-counter sit-ins with mass trans pee-ins. We get a bunch of trans people to converge at Pitt, notify the press, stand outside the bathrooms in the administrative building, and call the campus police to let them know we’re about to all go pee where we want to. . .

  37. I say to hell with separate bathrooms altogether. I remember being at a concert standing at a urinal when a bunch of gals came in to use the bathroom because the women’s was so full. I couldn’t have cared less. We’re all there to do business and it ain’t scoping out someone’s genitalia while whizzing. And if someone has a fetish for that, well, you get a freebie. Frankly, I’m more comfortable if a lady come in to use a stall while I’m at a urinal than me and 5 guys all standing at a pissing trough! Or put stalls only in and everybody gets a private room to do their thing. Problem solved.

  38. “A university official informed Pitt’s Anti-Discriminatory Policies Committee”

    Now, that’s backwards. How about Pitt listens to its ADP Committee and does what it advises?

    Instead, the university creates a situation that pretends everyone fits neatly into two categories, then makes life miserable for those who don’t.

  39. “changing the gender on a birth certificate requires sex-reassignment surgery”

    This is INCORRECT information and the author should correct it.

    There are at least 2 states that do not allow you to change it no matter what you do, and on the other hand I believe a couple of jurisdictions where you can change it without surgery.

  40. Even if all states allowed you to change the sex marker on your birth certificate. Most of the students will be in the 18 to 22 age range, and won’t have had the sufficient time anyway to have had any relevant surgery whether they could afford it or not. This is either a short sighted or deliberately discriminatory policy on the college’s behalf, and lets face it, how many trans students does any college have, and yet they (the colleges) make such a big deal of it. It’s college, you go there by choice, you should be old enough and clever enough to know whats what, and this ruling is just wrong.

  41. Uh, I don’t care who identifies as what, frankly. Identify with whatever gender you identify with. But if you have a penis, I do not want you in the bathroom with me. I’m sorry, but it isn’t always about you. I’m sure this will be construed as some kind of “ALL TRANSGENDERED PERSONS ARE RAPISTS OMg!!” idiocy, but that’s not what I’m saying, at all. What I’m saying is that if you have a penis you could very well be a rapist. Or so it might feel to the women who can be penetrated vaginally by force in the restroom.

    Transgendered folk have a tendency to become obsessed with their own entitlement without affording the same decencies they expect to others. They are afraid to use the men’s restroom if they identify as female because they (rightfully) fear they might be assaulted. That is a realistic fear. But they then deny cis women the right to be uncomfortable with the idea of being assaulted by someone with a penis in the female restroom. Eh.

    In all honesty, though? If you identify female no one is going to notice you going into the female restroom. And vice versa.

  42. Not fair for Pitt to position people against the laws of the state they were born in. Some states will change gender on birth certificates, some will only under certain circumstances, and I think some will not under any circumstance. What right does Pitt have to make varied state laws precedent? Cop out. We need to be supported, not tolerated or denied.

  43. Here in Utah you can get your Name and Gender Marker changed at the same time…if and that is a BIG IF the judge of your district feels like changing your Gender Marker. If they don’t they say they can’t do it and you only get your name changed. Many of us have had to get lawyers and spend money we don’t have and go back to the court to get that Gender Marker.
    This University and others like it need to get their heads out from between their legs. No wonder our educational system is falling apart!

  44. Here in Ohio you can get your gender marker changed on your I.D. if you are under a therapist care for Transgender. If you go through and have everything done and take the letter to the courts the state does not change the gender they add an amendment same with my home state of Iowa. If you are from Georgia there isn’t even the option of an amendment. What does Pitt think they are doing. This is not only against their own anti-discrimination policy but it is also against Federal anti-discrimination policy. This isn’t the 1950’s and ’60’s there are laws in place to protect those of us going through transition and trying to get the money up or those that are “no-op” that don’t feel the need to under go surgery.

  45. @Jill DeYoe, I am a straight woman identifying as… well more or less a woman 🙂 I don’t think gender and sexual identity is as rigid, but that’s what I would say about myself, I guess.

    I had a misfortune to be sexually assaulted by a woman. I think they can be as dangerous as men, or even more so, as we don’t think they can penetrate our vaginas. They can. Not with their penises, but they can. I, frankly speaking, don’t feel super safe in ladies’ toilets. On the other hand I used to use all gender toilets in a few places, and after feeling a bit awkward at the beginning, I started seeing how much more sense it makes! People hardly even come to toilets, or so I would like to believe, to leer or rape. Toilets are pretty safe places, as there are lots of people coming in and out all the time. If they are made unisex, then possibility of anything happening is even less.

    Just a thought you may want to consider…

  46. Sorry! Not Jill, @ Disappointed! Also, my other thought is, what do you do if you have both genitalia? What if you have both a penis and a vagina? Which toilet do you use then?

  47. Then they should post guards at every bathroom and check EVERYONE’S (Transgender or NOT) birth certificate if they want to use the bathroom – that is only fair. And, of course, we ALL carry our birth certificates on us everywhere we go, don’t we….

  48. Indiana, like many states, offers two forms of certified birth certificate, a short form which doesn’t show sex, and a long form that does. I’ve never encountered a circumstance where the long form is required, but a web search showed the long form might be needed “for foreign adoptions or applications for dual citizenship”, and I’m guessing possibly when one applies for a marriage license. However, I see the State of Tennessee (which permits no changes or amendments to a birth certificate) does put sex on the short one. So conceivable trans folk from some states could skate through while others couldn’t, making this even more inequitable than it obviously is. As soon as someone starts a petition on Charge.Org or similar site, demanding UPitt reverse this policy, I’ll sign it.

  49. This BS is comiong from a school of higher learning, WTF? were they thinking when they did this stupid shit. I’m a MtF and have been on the road of transitioning for about 4 yrs now and if I went into a men’s room now I would probably get hurt or worse so as an identifying female in a male body. I would use their bathroom and deal with their BS after I took care of the business of using the toilet and get out as simple as going in. Fucking Rethuglicons at work overtime…

  50. I was born in a state that will not allow me to change my birth certificate. My passport says I’m male, I’m a male according to the Social Security office. I have a deep voice, I look like a man. It would be unfair to the women for me to use a female restroom, yet Pitt would expect me to do so. This policy is absurd.

  51. I’m so tired of the whole Penis = Man = Rape argument.

    Look at Chrissy Polis (viral McDonalds video) She was badly beaten up by two girls (one was only 14) for using the lady’s room. Who was more dangerous?

    2nd, the trans person is almost always out numbered in the bathroom.

    3rd, you’re more likely to be raped by a 10 year old boy because one week on the hormones and your penis couldn’t penitrate Jello.

  52. Having a gun does not make you a murderer.
    Having a penis does not make you a rapist.

    Just because cops have guns does not mean everyone with a gun IS a cop.
    Just because men have a penis does not mean everyone with a penis is a man.

  53. The second comment, by Disappointed: “Transgendered folk have a tendency to become obsessed with their own entitlement without affording the same decencies they expect to others.”

    This is unfortunately misleading and incorrect. As a legally “f” mainstream transexual woman, i knew my gender with a searing, all-encompassing clarity of awareness at age 4.

    So much for that being a “lifestyle choice”, much less deviant sexuality choice at that age. On another view, i was so badly bullied, beaten, pushed completely outside of all “normal” cultural boxes, and harassed for my differences, and i barely survived my childhood in this society as a result. Entitlement ? Ok – obsessed ?

    if anything, i am obsessed with being the most warmly, utterly old-school, real golden rule, and respectful neighbor and fellow citizen, to everyone, no matter the face of every hatred i have ever had to endure, against such incredible ignorance as this…

    Here is what else i am obsessed with. An average unemployment rate for TS females at 25-30% and 15-20% homelessness for many of us.

    I am obsessed with the fact that when i transitioned, and even though i have really good features and a non-masculine bulid, educated, well spoken, non-flambouyant, was never a gay male, total opposite ALL negative stereotypes, and i still had to deal with being pushed away by 90% of my own family, pushed out of most industries i had worked with, and have been harassed as both a pedestrian and a driver, stalked, laughed at, hated, insulted, disrespected, lied about, and regularly conflated with the most disgusting hateful criminal scum that even EXISTS on the planet (pedophiles and predators), none of which, would likely ever even DARE to change their entire NORMAL modus operandi, of their typically under the radar stealthy means, to do the sick shit they do, much less try to pass as even a poor TS or TG woman, have no supporting documentation, and raise the risk of getting caught, exponentially…

    ….as well, you seem to have no awareness whatsoever of the standard CLINICAL REQUIREMENT that anyone in transition of gender MUST be ABLE TO PROVE that they can adjust and function in normal society in their ideal gender, (called the RLE or RLT – otherwise known as “The real life test”) and that also means, self-entitled woman that has had the LUXURY of taking your femininity for granted, likely most of your own life, that EVERY single pre-op TS woman in this ENTIRE society has at one time, had to (respectfully, and discreetly, and VERY carefully) share facilities with YOU, and every other woman, and yet, there has never YET, in over 100 legislative districts, in more than 20 years, been such a hypothetical fearful “incident” of “forced penetration” as you graphically described, and seem to still think carries some valid measure of argument in context to the lives of real Transexual females.

    “Entitlement” to simply survive an utter daily living hell of a minefield, and often desperate, dangerous, expensive, & often nothing short of impossible process to complete for many of us, and do so without rape, abuse, homelessness, familylessness, extreme hatred, misperception, stereotyping, and social discriminations to a level you could not possibly comprehend, has nothing to do with what “Entitlement” and “Obsessed” as you very shallowly characterized it.

    In this matter you are entirely incorrect, and should not speak for TS women unless you are one, or are a close friend, ally, or family to one of us, and have any better understanding of this issue.

    Most Respectfully,

    I am, now and forevermore,

    Maryanne A. Arnow

  54. When people use a public bathroom nobody expects privacy at the sink or any other place other than a stall.

    All this noise about bathrooms is really just trying to wrap bigotry and stupidity into a policy, especially since informed people would know that nobody carries their birth certificate with them to the bathroom and the school is not going to enforce this policy without targeting a specific population, i.e., profiling.

    Oh yeah, did anyone mention that sex on birth certificates can’t be changed in many states no matter how many doctors certify that the original is wrong?

  55. I am really curious how far they’re going to take this… I have a 4 year old son that I take into the women’s room with me, so if I take him with me to visit a friend at Pitt, will I have to send him in the men’s room alone??? Really not cool with that idea, especially since according to the comment made by Disappointed, every person in the men’s room is a potential rapist! oh wait, my son has a penis too, so even HE may be a rapist!! … so if my son has to poop, will my only options be let him poop in his pants or send him in a room alone and yell in, ‘hey guys, my son’s doesn’t have the wiping thing down real well, can one of you strangers please grab the tp and do that for me?”

  56. This isn’t about mommies taking their little boys into the ladies room. As a woman, I do not want to be expected to feel comfortable in a locker room shower with another woman who happens to be sporting a dick and balls. If you are a woman with this congenital defect, you may not understand how offensive, frightening and bullying you will seem to women in our culture. This is not about discrimination. If you MUST use a restroom that does not suit your appearance at least keep it all in closed stalls. I am sorry you have a problem that is difficult to overcome, so do many people. Stop making it everyone elses.

  57. @StandBack – I don’t know if you’re really serious or just making fun!?! No transgender person would feel comfortable showering in public like you mention. All would much rather prefer single stall toilets, showers and changing rooms, and I suggest that you would never in a million years see a trams person openly doing or displaying any thing to raise awareness in other people. Whether you know it or not, you are already today using bathroom facilities alongside trans people and in 16 states and 150 localities that do have transgender protective laws, there has never been a single incident of the type people are fearmongeringly spreading around unnecessarily. Moreover, trans people are using bathrooms all over the country already and no recorded incidents ever of impropriety! Get real and stop with the ridiculous nonsensical stuff.

  58. I am a thin cheerleader born in a body that is fat. I want to be on the top of the pyramid. I can get up there, I have the skills. I’m not really fat. I just have the girth. I am in the process of becoming a thin cheerleader physically. I am there mentally. I take the meds, I eat the celery, I am saving up for the surgery that will allow me to finally look like the slender cheerleader I was born to be. Why can’t I be on the top of the pyramid now? It’s not fair. You’re all bigots.

  59. @ Jazzhands Wow, you must think yourself so witty and clever! Whereas actually your comment is one of an ignorant, ill educated buffoon. Go away, learn about what it actually is to be trans, then come back and apologize for your stupidity. Off you go…

  61. No, you don’t get the point. Whilst it is absolutely correct you should be given the chance of being at the top of the pyramid, it may not physically be possible to do so as the rest may not physically be able to support you. It is, after all, a team “sport”. Also, by the suggestion of diet, etc, it is your choice you are fat (Rather than having some chemical imbalance).

    Being Trans is not a choice and you can’t change it by wishing, or trying for it to be not true. It simply is. Also, you are not physically impacting anyone else by using those toilets or changing facilities. All you are doing is pushing someones mental boundaries to see you as a person, rather than just a gender.

    If it make you feel uncomfortable. Never mind. Try… and you can get over it.

    Good luck in becoming the thin cheerleader at the top of the pyramid, if that’s what you truly want.

  62. @ Treison

    There are reasons to be in Canada, their draconian approach to trans care is not one of them. My own early transition timeline was 5 months part time > 2 months full time no hormones > 1 month inhibitors only > full HRT scaled over time. The predicate was simply going to my therapist, saying I’m full time and I want hormones. Therapist writes an endocrinologist: ‘give her hormones’ and done.

    @ Heather

    I’m half a year in on a twice daily regimen of estradiol, medroxyprogesterone and spironolactone with less than half my previous ambient testerone level and I’m still fully functional. Hormones *can* cause erectile dysfunction, and indeed it’s pretty common, but it’s not guaranteed.

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