Open AccessBathroom Bias: Making the Case for Trans Rights under Disability Law
Author(s) -
Daniella A. Schmidt
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
michigan journal of gender and law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2688-5565
pISSN - 1095-8835
DOI - 10.36641/mjgl.20.1.bathroom
Subject(s) - civil liberties , medicalization , law , state (computer science) , stigma (botany) , political science , transgender , law reform , identity (music) , sociology , psychology , gender studies , politics , algorithm , psychiatry , computer science , physics , acoustics
Disability law is one of the more successful tools currently being used to protect trans people fom discrimination. While the use of disability law as a framework for affirming or creating trans rights has come with some success, many in the community remain reluctant to use disability law for fear of the policy implications and stigma associated with medicalization of trans identity. After exploring the current state of the law on both the federal and state level, this Note will argue how disability law both could and should be used more often to further trans protections. In particular, this Note will look at the role of bathroom access in the fight for trans civil liberties and how disability law might be used to affirm trans people's access in the workplace to gendered bathrooms that accord with their lived sex.