17 Comments
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ClemenceDane's avatar

The boys should bring charges.

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Mariah Burton Nelson's avatar

Their families have requested a federal investigation.

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ClemenceDane's avatar

Bravo

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Emmy Elle's avatar

On strictly procedural grounds I find this so absurd. Can those of us who see ourselves as upholders of the rule of law not see that adherence to questionable ideology is dominating the decision making here?

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Mariah Burton Nelson's avatar

Yup.

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Elizabeth Moorchild's avatar

The situation in Loudoun County schools is even worse than this incident alone reveals. Loudoun County is the place where a female student was sexually assaulted by a trans identifying male in a girls’ bathroom in her school—and the school tried to cover it up. The parents are suing the school for $30 million. Let’s hope they https://apnews.com/article/loudoun-virginia-lawsuit-transgender-bathroom-sexual-assault-a26168568cc20c2aa6cec9bef50e7c3f

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Mariah Burton Nelson's avatar

Yes, thanks for this context.

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Liz's avatar

This is just absolutely insane. Will be borrowing the quote, "so openminded their brains are falling out'. :)

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Susan Scheid's avatar

“Because isn’t it obvious to anyone whose brain has not fallen out that boys - and therefore girls- have a right to locker-room privacy?” You would think so, right? Yet so far, we seem to have a plague of brainlessness.

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Mariah Burton Nelson's avatar

Yes. Hence my efforts. And yours. Retrieving extant brain matter and stuffing it back inside skulls, wherever possible. :-)

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Jo's avatar

I'm less sanguine about whether this will help girls be heard. It's the same pattern — male students are supported, female students are told they're wrong.

I mean, this time she was wrong, but I keep thinking back to the St Louis area case, where 150 girls signed a petition for one boy to be kept out of the girls' changing room, and they were denied — even though private changing facilities were already available to him.

The word of 150 girls who knew this kid were ignored because of one boy's fee fees.

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Mariah Burton Nelson's avatar

Hi Jo, Good point about sanguinity. Me either; I may be searching for hope wherever I can find it.

It's not exactly the same sexist pattern, which usually favors boys, because the sexual harassment charges have not been dropped against the boys. Parents are supporting them - but trans activists are persuading the school district that anyone who calls themselves trans has more rights than the rest of us.

So, yeah, I'm hoping - not necessarily expecting - that this particular absurdity, of asking 15-yr-old boys to disrobe in front of girls - will wake people up (hence the article) and help all of us dismantle the system that has a disproportionately negative impact on girls.

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Jo's avatar

I didn't notice the bit about charges not being dropped - my fault for reading late at night 🤣

I will withhold judgement then, until the case is decided.

Trans activists supporting the girl have a strong motivation for doing so — they need to defend against anything that threatens their stance that males can identify as female to access single sex spaces for women and girls.

If they don't back this girl's play, the cracks might start to show.

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Mariah Burton Nelson's avatar

Right. I think the cracks are showing. Or I hope they are. Sanity has to win.

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Jo's avatar

I hope so. I truly hope so.

I'm trying not to think too hard about the Rachel Dolezal affair, though. I really thought that would peak a lot of people, but it didn't reach critical mass.

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Fran Mason's avatar

5) the desire to avoid confrontation 6) the startle phenomenon, in which you are too startled to react in the moment and then the moment is over and it's too late.

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Mariah Burton Nelson's avatar

Yes, good additions; thanks, Fran.

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