Chicago Public Schools will now allow students and staff to use bathrooms and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identities.
"Chicago Public Schools (CPS) today announced the implementation of new guidelines to support transgender students, employees and adults to ensure CPS schools are safe, welcoming environments for everyone in the school community," stated a press release from CPS.
Chicago school district has about 660 schools, and over 390,000 students, who will now have access to the bathrooms that correspond with their gender identities.
"The guidelines released today will help ensure every student and adult in the CPS family can participate in an environment of complete tolerance and respect," said CPS Chief Education Officer Dr. Janice K. Jackson.
The decision by CPS comes in the backdrop of a series of state legislations which require bathroom use in conformity with birth genders, and drew criticism from many conservative groups.
"Put concretely, boys now have the 'right' to undress in the girls' locker room before gym class so long as they say they would feel more comfortable doing so," Roger Severino, the director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation, wrote in an op-ed in The Daily Signal.
"Kids and teens have many things to worry about as they grow into adulthood and get an education. But having to deal with people of the opposite sex in their bathrooms and showers shouldn't be one of them."
However, the move by CPS attracted little resistance from local advocacy groups in Chicago, and was welcomed by LGBT people who touted this as a step away from perceived discrimination.
"It's a great day for gender-diverse students in CPS," said Vanessa Sheridan, director of transgender programming at the Center on Halsted. "This is an affirmation of their viability as human beings. The tide of public opinion is shifting to support the trans community in general."
CPS cited Title IX of Education Amendments (1972) to back its new policy, which originally intended to protect women from sexism and discrimination in schools.
According to a Reuters poll taken last month, 43 percent of Americans think public bathroom should be used in alignment with birth sex, while only 41 percent say that people's gender identity needs to be considered in giving them bathroom access.
The younger generation, those between the ages of 18 and 29, were more likely to agree (62 percent to 29 percent) that people should be allowed to use bathrooms as per their gender identities.
People aged above 60 years prefer people using bathrooms in accordance with the sex listed on their birth certificates (53 percent to 27 percent).
About 64 percent Republicans, as against 23 percent, supported bathroom ordinances requiring people to use bathrooms in conformity with birth sex. On the other hand, 57 percent Democrats thought people should be allowed to use restrooms according to their gender identity, and only 29 percent disagreed.
