In practice, protections for trans students are spotty nationally because of a вЂњpatchwork of policies,вЂќ and policies even differ from district to district in states that have actually issue guidelines to schools for treatment of transgender students. Seventy-five percent of trans teens feel вЂњunsafeвЂќ at school, according to a 2015 surveyВ conducted by GLSEN, an organization that advocates for LGBTQ rights in schools.ДЄ mental health studyВ published in August by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that transgender, gender nonconforming and nonbinary college students are two to four times more likely to suffer from mental-health issues than other students.

The Time article notes that some 150,000 teens, ages 13-17, identify as transgender in the U.S., and that they are exceedingly vulnerable to harassment, bullying and violence. In addition, trans students face extreme marginalization and discrimination at schools, from students and staff. On the other hand, a federal law protects employees by prohibiting sex discrimination in workplaces, and presumably also pertains to schools. Teachers who are now plaintiffs in three cases pending in three states - Indiana, Virginia and Ohio - contend they were forced to choose to keep their jobs or behave in ways they consider sinful вЂњfor refusing to use the preferred names or pronouns of transgender students. They have this prejudice because an ancient book seems to prohibit such thinking and behavior, supposedly contrary to вЂњGodвЂ™s will,вЂќ that only males and females - exactly as they are born - be acknowledged. So, on the one hand we have Americans who are offended by even the idea of вЂњtransgender,вЂќ and they extend their distaste to actual transgender people, including students.

In my view, superstition, whether or not it derives from religious ideology, should never be allowed to trump demonstrable, factual reality. So, the question is, who should have the more compelling claim for redress - the offended teachers or the offended students. Brian or Brianne) or pronoun (she or he). Transgender students say they feel вЂњhumiliatedвЂќ and вЂњdisrespectedвЂќ by gender-prejudiced teachers who will not refer to them in class by their chosen gender name (e.g. Teachers say they oppose the вЂњtransgenderвЂќ concept due to their вЂњsincerely held religious beliefsвЂќ (fundamentalist Christians believe God denounced such вЂњunnaturalвЂќ realities as sinful n the Bible). The other is whether supernatural beliefs, which are effectively superstitions (because they are unverifiable), should ever be allowed to accommodate discrimination or social repression in defiance of practical, often already legal, understandings of reality.ДЇor example, the Time article focuses particularly on school teachersвЂ™ discrimination for religious reasons against transgender students, and whether that is morally or ethically supportable. One question is whether human rights or religious freedom should be given primacy in the United States when a conflict arises between the two.

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