跨性別人士的如廁問題 成爲人權新議題

The people of Palatine, Ill., a middle-class suburb of Chicago marked by generic strip malls and tidy cul-de-sacs, had not spent much time debating the thorny questions of transgender rights. But in late 2013, a transgender high school athlete, so intent on defending her privacy that she is known only as Student A, took on her school district so she could use the girls’ locker room.

伊利諾伊州的帕拉蒂諾是芝加哥郊外的中產社區，有着隨處可見的商業街和整潔的死巷。那裏的居民並沒有花多少時間去探討棘手的跨性別者權益問題。然而，到了2013年底，一名高中跨性別運動員對學區提出了申訴，要求使用女更衣室。她非常希望保護自己的隱私，使用了化名“學生A”。

After the federal Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights ruled in her favor last fall, the two sides cut a deal: Student A could use the locker room and the school would install private changing areas. Some in the community denounced the arrangement; others joined the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which represented the girl, in declaring a victory for civil rights.

去年秋天，聯邦教育部的公民權辦公室做出了有利於她的裁決，隨後雙方達成了協議：學生A可以使用女更衣室，而學校將設置私密的更衣區。社區的一些人對這一安排進行了譴責；另一些人則與代理她的美國公民自由聯盟伊利諾伊州分部(American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois)一起，宣稱這是公民權的勝利。

Now the whole nation is in a pitched battle over bathroom access, with the Obama administration ordering all public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice. Across the country, religious conservatives are rebelling. On Friday, lawmakers in Oklahoma became the latest group to protest, proposing one measure to effectively overturn the order, and another calling for President Obama to be impeached over it.

現在，全美爆發了針對衛生間使用權的尖銳鬥爭。奧巴馬政府簽署政令，要求所有的公立學校允許跨性別學生自行選擇衛生間使用。對此，全國各地的宗教保守派在加以抵制。上週五，俄克拉何馬州的議員成爲抗議團體中最新的成員，他們不僅提出了一項實際上會顛覆這項指令的議案，還提出了另一項議案，呼籲就該指令彈劾奧巴馬總統。

How a clash over bathrooms, an issue that appeared atop no national polls, became the next frontier in America’s fast-moving culture wars — and ultimately landed on the desk of the president — involves an array of players, some with law degrees, others still in high school.

衛生間問題從未在全美的民意調查中位居前列，如今這方面的衝突卻成爲了美國快速變化的文化戰爭的下一個前線——並且最終呈到了總統的案頭。這場戰爭涉及各種各樣的參與者，既有擁有法學學位的人，也有仍在上中學的學生。

The sweeping directive to public schools seemed to come out of nowhere. In fact, it was the product of years of study inside the government and a highly orchestrated campaign by advocates for gay and transgender people. Mindful of the role “Whites Only’’ bathrooms played in the civil rights battles of more than half a century ago, they have been maneuvering behind the scenes to press federal agencies, and ultimately Mr. Obama, to address a question that has roiled many school districts: Should those with differing anatomies share the same bathrooms?

這一針對公立學校、影響極爲廣泛的指令看似來得莫名其妙。但實際上，它是政府內部研究多年的產物，也是倡導人士爲幫助同性戀和跨性別羣體爭取權利而精心策劃的一場戰役的成果。他們注意到了“只准白人進入”的洗手間在民權運動中所扮演的角色，因此一直在幕後運籌帷幄，向聯邦機構乃至奧巴馬施加壓力，敦促其解決一個困擾着許多學區的問題：有着不同生理結構的學生能否共享衛生間？

The lobbying came to a head, according to people who were involved, in a hastily called April 1 meeting between top White House officials — led by Valerie Jarrett, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser and one of his closest confidantes — and national leaders of the gay and transgender rights movement. North Carolina had just become the first state to explicitly bar transgender people from using the bathrooms of their choice.

據參與其中的人士稱，在4月1日緊急召開的一個會議上，相關遊說到了緊要關節。參會者包括白宮高級官員以及同性戀及跨性別權利運動的全國性領導者。白宮方面的牽頭官員是瓦萊麗·賈勒特(Valerie Jarrett)，奧巴馬的高級顧問，同時也是其心腹之一。此前，北卡羅萊納剛剛成爲第一個明確禁止跨性別人士根據自我認同的性別使用衛生間的州。

“Transgender students are under attack in this country,” said Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based advocacy group that is active on the issue, summing up the message he sought to convey to Ms. Jarrett that day. “They need their federal government to stand up for them.”

“跨性別學生正在這個國家裏遭受攻擊，”積極推進這一議題的華盛頓倡導組織“人權運動”(Human Rights Campaign)的主席查德·格里芬(Chad Griffin)如此總結他那天竭力傳達給賈勒特的信息。“他們需要從聯邦政府那裏得到支持。”

Ms. Jarrett and her team, he said, listened politely, but “did not reveal much,” including the fact that a legal directive on transgender rights that had been in the works for months was about to be released.

他說，賈勒特及其團隊靜靜地聽着，但“並未透露太多東西”——也未透露一項關乎跨性別權利的總統令數月前便在籌劃之中，不日即將頒佈的事實。

When — or precisely how — Mr. Obama personally weighed in is not clear; the White House would not provide specifics. But two days before that meeting, scores of advocacy groups sent Mr. Obama a private letter, appealing to his sense of history as he nears the end of his presidency, in which he has already advanced gay and transgender rights on multiple fronts.

目前尚不清楚，奧巴馬是在何時——或者以何種具體方式——親自介入的；白宮不願提供相關細節。但那次會議召開兩天前，數十個倡導團體向奧巴馬發出了一封針對他個人的信函，在其總統任期即將結束之時尋求支持，希望他能創造歷史。任職期間，奧巴馬已經在多個方面改善了同性戀和跨性別羣體的權利狀況。

In August, several groups seeking protection for transgender people — including the Human Rights Campaign, the National Education Association and the National Center for Lesbian Rights — issued a 68-page guide for schools, hoping to provide a blueprint for the White House.

去年8月，包括人權運動、全國教育協會(National Education Association)以及全國女同性戀權益中心(National Centerfor Lesbian Rights)在內，若干尋求保護跨性別人士權益的組織，發佈了一份面向學校的、68頁長的指南，希望可以爲白宮提供可資借鑑的藍圖。

At the Department of Education, Catherine E. Lhamon, 44, a former civil rights litigator who runs the agency’s Office of Civil Rights — and has made aggressive use of a federal nondiscrimination law known as Title IX — was taking the lead. The department’s ruling in favor of Student A in November was the first time it had found any school district in violation of civil rights over transgender issues.

在美國聯邦教育部，凱瑟琳·E·利亞蒙(Catherine E. Lhamon)牽頭展開行動。44歲的利亞蒙曾是一位民權律師，目前是教育部民權辦公室(Office of Civil Rights)的負責人，一直在大力使用人稱“第九條”(Title IX)的聯邦反歧視法。教育部在去年11月做出了有利於“學生A”的裁決，這是它首次判定某個學區存在與跨性別議題有關的侵犯民權問題。

The ruling in Palatine reverberated across the Midwest. In the South Dakota Legislature, Republicans were so alarmed by the situation in Palatine that, in February, they passed a measure restricting bathroom access for transgender students — similar to the one that later became law in North Carolina. Opponents sent transgender South Dakotans to meet with Gov. Dennis Daugaard, a Republican, and they believe that influenced his veto of the bill.

這項裁決的影響從帕拉丁蔓延到了整個中西部地區。帕拉丁的情況讓南達科他州議會的共和黨人極爲恐慌，以至於他們在今年2月通過了一項限制跨性別學生使用衛生間的議案——和北卡羅來納州那項變成了法規的舉措頗爲相似。反對者們派了南達科他州的跨性別人士去見身爲共和黨人的州長丹尼斯·多加德(Dennis Daugaard)，他們認爲此次會面對州長造成了影響，促使其否決了相關議案。

Among the visitors was Kendra Heathscott, who was 10 when she first met Mr. Daugaard, then the executive director of a social services organization that treats children with behavioral problems. In his office to lobby against the bathroom measure, she reintroduced herself. “He remembered me as a little boy,” she said.

其中一位造訪者是肯德拉·希思科特(Kendra Heathscott)，和多加德州長第一次見面時，她只有10歲，多加德當時在一家救治有行爲問題的兒童的社會服務機構擔任執行主任。在州長辦公室裏進行遊說，反對實施與洗手間有關的限制性規定時，她再次介紹了自己。“在他記憶裏我是一個小男孩，”她說。

In Wisconsin last year, another Republican-sponsored bathroom bill began to work its way through the Legislature, but was beaten back by transgender rights activists, many of them teenagers.

去年，在威斯康星州，另一項共和黨發起的洗手間議案被提交至立法機構待審，但在跨性別權利活動人士的反對之下被擊退，那些活動人士很多都只有十幾歲。

In rural north-central Florida, a retired veterinarian and cattle rancher named Harrell Phillips was alarmed one evening in March, when his 17-year-old son reported over dinner that he had encountered a transgender boy in the high school bathroom.

今年3月裏的一個晚上，在佛羅里達州中北部的鄉村地區，退休獸醫兼牧場主哈勒爾·菲利普斯(Harrell Phillips)嚇了一跳，因爲他17歲的兒子在吃晚飯時告訴他，自己在高中的衛生間裏碰見了一個跨性別男孩。

“I marched myself down to the principal,” said Dr. Phillips, who believes that “you are born into a sex that God chose you to be.”

“我直奔學校，去找校長，”菲利普博士說。他認爲“你生下來是什麼性別就是什麼性別，那是上帝決定的”。

One transgender young man there has been suspended for using the boys’ bathroom. The A.C.L.U. of Florida sued the day before the White House issued its directive, and last Sunday night, transgender activists and their allies held a strategy session in a church — with a sheriff’s deputy standing guard outside because attendees feared for their safety.

在那裏，一名年輕的跨性別男子因爲使用男生衛生間而自此被停學。在白宮發佈指令的前一天，美國公民自由聯盟的佛羅里達州分部就此提起訴訟。上週日晚上，一些跨性別活動人士及其盟友在一座教堂舉行了一場策略討論會——有一名警察在門外守衛，因爲與會者擔心自己的人身安全。

“It’s separate but equal, so they might as well put black and white up on the bathrooms, too,” said Beth Miller, the mother of 17-year-old Mathew Myers, formerly Madison, an R.O.T.C. student in Ocala who came out as transgender this fall by asking his sergeant to permit him to switch from a women’s uniform to one for men. The sergeant accommodated Mathew on the uniform, but the school required him to use the gender-neutral bathroom in the nurse’s office.

“這是隔離，又號稱平等，所以他們有可能也會考慮讓白人和黑人分開使用衛生間，”貝絲·米勒(Beth Miller)說道。她是17歲的馬修·邁爾斯(Mathew Myers)的母親，後者以前名爲麥迪遜(Madison)，來自奧卡拉，是預備役軍官訓練營的一名學生。去年秋天，他曝光了自己的跨性別身份，請求他的中士允許他脫下女軍裝，換上男軍裝。這名中士同意了馬修在着裝上的要求，但學校要求他使用護士辦公室內那間不分性別的洗手間。

Though North Carolina was the first state to adopt a law explicitly barring all transgender people from using public facilities of their choice, many say the current debate has its roots in Houston. In November 2015, voters there repealed the city’s anti-discrimination measure, after a campaign in which the law’s opponents boiled their message down to a five-word slogan. It appeared on yard signs, T-shirts, banners, and ominous ads on TV, radio and the Internet: “No Men in Women’s Bathrooms.”

儘管北卡羅來納是第一個以法律形式明令禁止所有跨性別人士按自己的意願使用公共設施的州，但很多人表示，目前這場爭論的根源產生於休斯頓。在2015年11月，那裏的選民廢除了該市的反歧視法案。此前，反對這項法律的人士發起了一場宣傳攻勢，將他們的意見歸結爲一條五個單詞的口號。這個口號出現在庭院廣告牌、T恤、條幅上，也出現在透出警告意味的電視、廣播和互聯網廣告裏：“男性禁入女廁(No Men in Women’s Bathrooms)。”

The repeal of the Houston ordinance rattled national gay rights leaders.

休斯頓法令遭廢除事件令全國的同性戀權益活動領袖陷入不安。

“I think they have now created a campaign in a box that we are going to see shipped from city to city and state to state,” Mr. Griffin, of the Human Rights Campaign, said in an interview at the time.

“我覺得他們創造了一種簡單易行的宣傳模式。我們會看到它從一座城市向另一座城市、一個州向另一個州蔓延，”人權運動組織的格里芬在當時接受採訪時說道。