LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Board of Education will issue a decision by the end of summer on whether to approve guidelines that would allow students to use bathrooms based on their gender identity.
Hundreds of parents and students packed the board's Tuesday meeting to speak on the issue during the final opportunity for public comment. A decision will be made by August, at the earliest, which will give the board time to consider the several thousand comments received, according to board president John Austin.
Introduced in March, the proposal is designed to guide schools on providing protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. The state Board of Education extended the deadline for public comment in March in wake of widespread backlash.
“Transgender students deserve a safe learning environment like any other student," said Zoe Steinfeld, a transgender student. "It’s really important to me to be able to have full access to public life so I’m very appreciative of what the state board of education is doing.”
>> MORE: Read proposed guidelines on gender identity here.
Opponents to the proposed guidelines rallied outside the Tuesday meeting prior to public comment. Doug Levesque said the policies amount to child abuse and the board needs to stay out of the debate.
"There’s a lot of dangerous aspects to this that I think are logical that could interfere with education in the classroom," he said. "We just don’t want the board of education making policy, especially when it comes to these social ideas.”
Some state lawmakers have vowed to push for passage of legislation to stop students from using a bathroom other than the one matching their birth certificate.
The issue has spurred political clashes nationwide. On Monday, the U.S. Justice Department sued the state of North Carolina over its new law requiring transgender people to use the public restroom corresponding to the gender on their birth certificate. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the law amounts to “state-sponsored discrimination” and is aimed at “a problem that doesn’t exist.”
The policies introduced by the Michigan Board of Education include voluntary guidelines such as allowing a student to use restrooms based on their gender identity, addressing students by their “chosen name” and gender pronouns that “correspond to their gender identity,” ensuring staff are trained to address issues facing LGBTQ students, and supporting the creation of clubs like as gay-straight alliances.
The board is accepting written comment from the public through the end of Wednesday. If approved, school districts would not be required to adopt the policies.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
