Dear Future President of the United States, 

My name is Cameron, and I am an 8th grade student at a small school in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts called Meridian Academy. In this letter, I am writing to you about the recent "conflict" regarding transgender citizens and whether or not it is appropriate for them to enter a bathroom of the gender they identify with. Sadly, many people feel uncomfortable with allowing themselves and their children into a restroom with a woman or man that was originally the opposite sex. This issue has been protested at schools, stores and many other public places. However, the issue isn't as simple as creating separate bathrooms for transgender females and males. 

In many schools, transgender teens have been driven out of locker rooms, bathrooms, and other spaces, because some children and parents feel uncomfortable with a male with female anatomy or a woman with male anatomy in those spaces. In Missouri, Perry, a teenage female who was born as a male, was driven away from her school's girls locker room because the other students felt uncomfortable with her male anatomy, and they, along with their families, protested Perry (and transgender people in general) entering the restroom. However, people who supported Perry also protested for her right as a female to enter a locker room just like the other students. In an interview Perry said, "I am a girl. I am not going to be pushed away to another bathroom." And if America were to create separate restrooms for transgender men and women, it would be no better than kicking them out of bathrooms. It would create a demeaning situation for any transgender citizen, which we should all be ashamed of. People should not be ashamed of who they are because they are perceived as "different". 

There is a fear that a trans citizen would enter a public bathroom and sexually harass those who are in the bathroom.  There certainly may be sexual harassment in public restrooms, but transgender people have no other motive to go into a bathroom other than to simply use it. This act of discrimination would fall under the category of transphobia. This issue is equally important when compared with homophobia, racism, sexism, and the other discriminatory issues that have affected the lives of citizens that now fear being who they are. We are often reminded while living in America that this country is built for every American to be free, equal with "justice for all." I hope that you can help to make it that way.

Sincerely, 

Cameron S.