Radio Workshop

Transgender Bathrooms (Transcript)

by Emily Grossman

NARRATION:

Dean Spade was born female. The twenty-something lawyer, who has short hair and a lean build, now lives as a man. A year ago, Spade, who founded a program that serves the low-income transgender community, stopped at Grand Central Station to use the bathroom. A police officer followed him into the men's room.

TAPE: SPADE: I explained that I was in the correct bathroom, and that I was transgender, and that I was just going to use the bathroom and leave.

NARRATION:

After that, Spade says police pushed him against a wall, charged him with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, and then held him for 23 hours. The charges were eventually dropped but using public bathrooms continues to be an issue for Spade.

TAPE: SPADE: I have been kicked out of both men's and women's rooms, leaving me with the idea, that I look, whatever my appearance is, at least at some points in my life, has clearly been to a lot of people, not sufficiently male or female to use a bathroom.

NARRATION:

A current lawsuit may make the law clearer. Two years ago, the Hispanic AIDS Forum was kicked out of its building for letting its transgender clients use the bathrooms. The bathrooms were used by other tenants of the Jackson Heights building. Now the Hispanic AIDS Forum is suing its former landlord suing for damages. Heriberto (eri-BERTO) Sanchez Soto is the executive director of the non-profit organization. Less than five percent of its clients are transgender.

TAPE: Sanchez Soto: The defendants have been demanding that we release information concerning the genitalia of our clients, hahaha, that would be grossly inappropriate, but also a violation not only of their human rights but their civil rights.

Narration:

There was no answer to repeated calls to the defendant's office. The judge who will oversee the case issued a pre-hearing opinion last month agreeing with Soto, which stated that physical anatomy of transgendered people is not relevant to their gender identity. Jennifer Levi, an attorney at Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders says this opinion, even from a low level court, will likely be used to defend transgender rights.

TAPE: LEVI: It is a privacy claim which basically says that it's inappropriate for an employer or a landlord to ask questions about somebody's genital makeup in order to determine what appropriate restroom facility they should use and it's very significant that a judge agreed that info relating to a person's anatomy is not relevant in determining what restroom they should use.

Narration:

Soto Sanchez of the Hispanic AIDS Forum says that people's discomfort shouldn't prohibit others' basic rights.

TAPE: SOTO SANCHEZ: You cannot go to the subway and say I feel uncomfortable with all of you being here, while I am here, I am god, y'all get out so I can have the space to myself.

In San Francisco, transgender advocates are currently fighting to get the city to require gender neutral bathrooms in public spaces.

For Columbia Radio News, I'm Emily Grossman.

###