I Affirm is a grassroots movement intended to create Gender Affirming spaces for all students. We believe that affirmations to safeguard the mental, emotional and physical well-being of all public-school students.
We need communities to band together, through individual and corporate commitment, to protect our youth and make their voice heard to local, state and national leaders and policy makers.
This resolution is focused on gender identity policies. It is in response to proposed policies that will harm our youth.
We aim to propose policy standards that safeguard liberties and freedoms of all students. The resolution statements regarding bathroom and locker room shared space use are suggestions for current structures.
Therefore, be it resolved that we urge our local, state and federal leaders to adopt the following principles and policies:
• It is recognized that, one's innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither – how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. One's gender identity can be the same or different from their sex assigned at birth;
• All entities, with single-occupancy restroom facilities shall use gender-neutral signage for those facilities (for example, by replacing signs that indicate ‘Men’ and ‘Women’ with signs that say ‘Restroom’);
• On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously “separate education facilities are inherently unequal,” thereby making racial segregation in public schools a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Separate restrooms based upon Gender Expression shall be viewed in the same manner;
• A public-school student seeking to be known by a name other than the name designated on their legal documentation, may, at their discretion, use a derivative of their legal name, or choose their own name for the purposes of requesting that the public school’s staff identify the student by such name; shall be accommodated by public school’s staff;
• A student seeking to be referred to by a specific pronoun shall be reasonably accommodated, nor shall any such policy be enacted that infringes upon the students civil and constitutional liberties; as it is related to their Gender Identity and/or Gender Expression.
We hope you will agree that this resolution is fair in both form and operation and will indicate your agreement by signing.
Additionally, we recommend you individually contact your local, state and federal leadership encouraging them to adopt the resolution and the policies outlined therein.
We will be taking these signatures to our local, state and federal leaders to ask them to:
Local: Enact this resolution and policy points as board policy.
State: Vote YES on Senate Bill 52, as written, as well as to adopt the LGBTQ2SIA+ Student Success Act.
Federal: Vote yes on the Equality Act, as written.