1325 Massachusetts Ave. NW 202.903.0112(V) Suite 700 202.393.2241(F) Washington, DC 20005 www.TransEquality.org

May 14, 2014

Dr. Thomas Aberli, Principal

J.M. Atherton High School

3000 Dundee Road

Louisville, KY 40205

Dear Principal Aberli and members of the SBDM Council,

My name is Harper Jean Tobin—though it wasn't when I attended Atherton High School, from

1995-1999. At the time, I didn't know anyone else who was transgender. At the time, I didn't have

the words to tell people who I was, but people could tell I was different by the way I looked,

dressed, and acted. Occasionally, after school or on the bus, I would be harassed or get things

thrown at me because some other student decided I looked too feminine for a boy. When I held

hands or kissed my girlfriend—we both had long brown hair—sometimes people would see two

girls and harass us for that.

For the most part, though, I found Atherton to be a supportive place where diversity was

respected. While I was occasionally warned for not having my shirt tucked in, I was relieved that

administrators never gave me trouble for experimenting with makeup. I hung out with the theater

kids and the punk kids and the tiny handful of students who were out as gay or lesbian, and the

guy who wore the Atherton Rebel outfit. I was the star of Greg Hemaseth's history class, and

"Most Intellectual" in the yearbook. I rode the bus from Crescent Hill every day, but as far as I

was concerned, the Highlands was my home.

Still, I knew I wasn't bringing my whole self to school. It wasn't until I got to college and learned

more about transgender people that I understood my own identity and came out to my friends and

family as a transgender woman. It's difficult to describe the relief, the sense of peace and

possibility that come from finally being fully seen by those around you.

From that point on, I would hear many stories of transgender students whose high school

experiences were far more difficult. I have lost count of the stories I have heard of students

who are afraid to go to school after coming out, because their school did not accept them. A

national survey by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) found that 80% of

transgender students reported feeling unsafe at school. It was in large part because of those stories

that I followed in the footsteps of my mother, father, grandfather, and sister by going to law

school, and that I now advocate for the more than 700,000 transgender people in our nation in my

position as Director of Policy for the National Center for Transgender Equality.

While I've lived my entire adult life as a woman, it has been a wonder to see a growing number of

transgender youth courageously sharing who they are with their families, and transitioning in high

school or earlier. It broke my heart to read in the Courier-Journal that, though a young

transgender woman, probably much like myself, had courageously come out, transitioned, and

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been supported at school, without incident, some outside the school community were coming in to

demand she be singled out. I cannot imagine how it would have affected me as an Atherton

student to have my identity, and the propriety of my being accepted at school called into question,

with baseless suggestions that my mere presence was somehow harmful to other young women.

What I can imagine is how it would have felt to be told that, alone among all other girls in the school,

and despite not doing anything wrong, I had to go clear across the school building, past the restrooms

any other student could use, to one that was deemed acceptable for me. I can imagine how it would

have felt to have other students know that the very act of my using the restroom was under scrutiny by

the administration, and to have them take note every time I walked past them to the one place where I

was allowed to go. Excluded. Marginalized. Less-than. That's how it would have felt. Short of making

a student leave campus altogether, it's hard to imagine a clearer signal that they are not a full part of

the school community.

In my work at NCTE, I talk to transgender people, and their families across the country every day—

many of them struggling to be accepted and supported in school. I also talk to administrators,

employers, policymakers, and community members who may not have ever talked to a transgender

person before, and who have a lot of questions. When something seems new and unfamiliar, we

naturally wonder whether it will upset the things we value. And I've seen over and over how those

fears—usually more from a handful of parents than students themselves—quickly melt away in the

face of the unremarkable, everyday reality of the school day, as everyone sees that going to school

with someone who is transgender just doesn't change much. This is the experience of schools large and

small, urban, suburban, and rural, throughout the country. In that light, it's no surprise that state and

federal agencies and courts around the country, along with the nation's largest school districts are

saying, in an increasingly clear voice, that transgender students must have the same opportunities as

everyone else to learn, and to be themselves at school.

Though I now work in the nation's capital on behalf of all transgender people and their loves ones,

Louisville has always been and will always be my home. It's where my family and many of my

Atherton friends still live and work for a stronger community. Atherton is where I started the journey

that led to being the strong and successful woman I am today. It's hard not to get emotional when I see

the walls and halls of my school on WLKY amid a discussion of how people feel about people like

me. But I know that Atherton will do the right thing, because that is the kind of school community

we've always been.

I want to thank every student, teacher, staff member and parent who has supported this brave young

woman. She is not the first transgender student at Atherton, nor the last. We are part of the Atherton

community. I hope the school will take a clear stand that now and in the future, all students will be full

and equal members of the school community, without exception.

Sincerely,

Harper Jean Tobin, Esq.

Director of Policy, NCTE

Atherton Class of ‘99