A leading transgender rights group on
Thursday announced that the Colorado school which has barred
6-year-old transgender girl Coy Mathis from using the girls' bathroom
at her elementary school has refused mediation to settle the dispute.
The Transgender Legal Defense &
Education Fund (TLDEF) filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil
Rights Division after Coy's parents, Jeremy and Kathryn Mathis, were
told in mid-December by the Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8
that Coy could no longer use the girls' bathrooms that she had been
using for the past year at Eagleside Elementary School in Fountain,
where she is a first-grader. Coy was told she could use the nurse's
bathroom, a staff bathroom used by adults, or the boys' bathroom.
“Coy is not sick, she is not an
adult, and she is not a boy,” the Mathises said in a statement.
“If the school separates her from all her classmates to use the
bathroom, they are singling her out for mistreatment, and teaching
her classmates that it's okay to discriminate. We are saddened that
her school will not even come to the table to talk about this issue.”
More than 23,000 people have joined an
online
petition calling on the school to reverse its decision.
“We are so thankful for this show of
support for our daughter,” the Mathises said.
“These signatures should show Coy's
school that they are on the wrong side of this issue,” said GLAAD
President Herndon Graddick. “All kids need to feel welcomed by
their communities. Thankfully, thousands of Americans are sending
Coy the right message, even as her school is still insisting on
sending the wrong one.”