Critics Vow to Repeal Calif. Transgender Law - Voters could decide whether transgender students be allowed to use any bathroom. By Stephanie Chuang Kane Atticus Tajnai lived as Kathryn Amanda for 16 years before coming out to his family as a transgender teen. Kane, now a senior at Gunderson High School in San Jose, said he never felt completely comfortable – not just with being identified as a girl, but about labels in general. For Kane, the labels on the bathroom doors at school were some of the hardest to face. He wanted to go into the boys’ room, but felt obligated to go into the girls’ bathroom. So he tried not to go at all. “I kind of fell into this habit of going to the bathroom before I went to school, and very little throughout the day, he said. That, coupled with not being able to use the boys’ locker room nor join the boys’ sports teams, said Kane, weighed heavily on him. He said it got so bad, he thought of taking his own life during his sophomore and junior years. “I hated everything. I didn’t want to do anything. I had nights where I just wanted to go to sleep and never wake up ever again,” Kane recalled. “I always wished that I had the courage to do something to take my life because it was just so hard to think that the next day Id have to get up.” But in March, Kane decided to come out to his friends and family. He wanted to change his name from Katie to Kane, and for his loved ones to use “him” and “he.” And then this school year, Kane decided to come out to his school administrators. He credits AB 1266 – the California bill signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in September – which affords transgender students the right to choose which bathroom, locker room and sports teams they want to use and join. “After AB 1266 passed, I said if I were to come out at school, I’d be protected, he said. But the people behind one campaign titled “Privacy for All Students” are promising to pass a referendum and freeze the law, set to go into effect Jan.1, 2014, and put the issue on the November 2014 ballot. The Capitol Resource Institute, which supported Prop 8, is one of the groups taking part in the initiative. Read more: nbcbayarea/news/local/Critics-Vow-to-Repeal-California-Transgender-Law-231693751.html
Posted on: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 10:51:26 +0000
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