Really, I can’t do much justice to this article by trying to summarize it here. It’s a lengthy and comprehensive piece by the American Bar Association on the current status and developments in the field of accommodating transgender kids in schools, sports, and life.

I found this part here telling, about the discrimination faced by Nicole Maines.

By the time Nicole was in the third grade, according to the complaint, Asa C. Adams Elementary School recognized her as a female student and outlined how the situation would be handled in an education plan. She was placed in the girls’ chorus section, and it was agreed that she should use the girls’ restroom.

Shortly after Nicole started the fifth grade, a male classmate twice followed her into the girls’ restroom and called Nicole a fag, according to the complaint. He also disputed her use of the girls’ restroom. The boy was sent to the principal’s office, Levi says.

The boy reportedly entered the girls’ restroom again, and the school determined that the student’s grandfather, who was his guardian, encouraged him, according to Levi and the lawyer for the school district, Melissa Hewey.

So some hateful old geezer brainwashed his grandson. Classy.

The boy was suspended and removed from Nicole’s class, Hewey says. The boy’s grandfather, Paul Melanson, complained to the Orono School Committee, with support from the Christian Civic League of Maine.

Of course, because bullying, harassment, and slurs are the sorts of things Jesus would approve of. Wait, what?

Melanson also filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission. Prohibiting his grandson from using the girls’ bathroom or the faculty one like Nicole did, he argued, violated the boy’s right to public accommodation under the state human rights act.

Shame there weren’t punitive fines for frivolous actions.

“It ticks me right off that you’re letting a kid run the whole system,” Melanson told the Bangor Daily News. “Little boys do not belong in the little girls’ room, and vice versa. This isn’t just about my kid. A lot of children have come up to me and said that this isn’t right.”

Oh, the children have ruled it isn’t right. Well, that convinces me – everyone, back in the closet!

After the Maines’ lawsuit, a state senator proposed a modification to the state human rights act that would shield public institutions and businesses from discrimination complaints involving transgender people and bathrooms, showers and locker rooms. The proposal failed.

Yeah…feelin’ the hate here.

If you want to dig into the deeper details of what transgender youth are facing today, take a read.

For young people, transgender life means stress and confusion over restrooms, sports and harassment.