Celebrate diversity, protect our transgender friends in the state

Milwaukee is a community comprised of a kaleidoscope of individuals — people who differ in the color of their skin, the God they worship and the people they love. We are a greater community because of our diversity.

Fundamental to the celebration of our diversity is recognition that every person has rights, rights that are protected by law and by basic human decency. When rights are jeopardized, we owe it to our neighbors and to our community to defend those rights.

Recently, lawmakers in Madison introduced the Privacy Protection and Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act, a bill that would update our state law to include comprehensive protections for transgender people from discrimination.

Our current law lacks explicit protections for individuals who are transgender or gender nonconforming from being fired from their job, denied a home or refused services at a business simply because of who they are. This new legislation would rectify that, ensuring equal opportunity for all people.

The bill’s introduction follows a recent legal victory from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals for a transgender boy, Ash Whitaker, who faced discrimination at his school in Kenosha. That court became the first federal appeals court to rule that discrimination against transgender students is illegal under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination in schools.

After coming out as a transgender boy, Ash, a senior at Tremper High School in Kenosha, used the boys’ restroom for months with the support of his classmates. But school administrators intervened, claiming that his presence invades the privacy rights of his male classmates; and forced him to use a separate restroom from everyone else. The 7th Circuit concluded that Ash faced substantial harms for being singled out in this way, and ordered the school district to allow him to use the restroom that matches who he is.

Ash’s story is too common. Despite increased visibility and understanding about LGBT issues in recent years, there are ongoing attacks in many parts of America today to single out LGBT people for discrimination.

Wisconsin has been a leader on civil rights in the past, and we should take pride in that history. In 1982, we were the first state in the country to pass a nondiscrimination law protecting residents on the basis of sexual orientation. That law garnered bipartisan support at a time when national conversations about LGBT equality had hardly begun, and it was signed by a Republican governor. Wisconsin residents believe in fairness — it is part of the fabric of who we are.

I know the value of all our residents’ contributions and talents. I know my LGBT constituents want the same thing as everyone else: to raise their families, to make a decent living, and to feel safe and welcome in the community they call home. For young people like Ash, the harms of discrimination are exacerbated, adding to the already stressful demands of school and vulnerability of adolescence. Transgender students deserve the same opportunity as all other students to go to school, focus on their education, and feel supported by teachers and administrators.

Transgender people are our friends, family, neighbors and community members. The conversation around transgender equality is an important and timely one. Wisconsin has the opportunity to make history again, and we should do so promptly.

All Americans deserve respect and protection from challenges to their rights. That is what a just society must offer.

T om Barrett is mayor of Milwaukee.