MILFORD, NH — A New Hampshire school board has rescinded a policy banning middle and high school students from using urinals after dozens of people protested the measure, which had been a compromise in a proposal that prevent students from using facilities based on their gender identity.
Students at Milford Middle School and Milford High School can still access washrooms that “correspond to their consistently affirmed gender identity at school”.
But at its Feb. 6 meeting, the school board debated a proposal that would require students to use the bathroom and locker room of their sex assigned at birth. The proposal has upset transgender students, gender non-conforming students and their supporters.
Banning council-approved urinals was proposed as a compromise measure to the proposal. It also limited the maximum occupancy of restrooms and locker rooms to the number of lockers each contains and banned students from using common areas to change.
Dozens of students demonstrated a few days later.
Milford School District Superintendent Christi Michaud said school officials also received emails and phone calls against the ban, leading to the vote Wednesday night.
“The board listened to people,” Michaud told WMUR-TV.
Republicans across the country have pushed for anti-transgender legislation. As New Hampshire prohibits discrimination based on gender identity in housing, employment, and public accommodations, state lawmakers are considering legislation that states that public entities are able to “differentiate between the male and female sexes and women in competitive sporting events, criminal incarceration or places of intimate relationships”. privacy”.