MITIGATING THE "LGBT DISCONNECT":' TITLE IX'S PROTECTION OF TRANSGENDER STUDENTS, BIRTH CERTIFICATE CORRECTION STATUTES, AND THE TRANSFORMATIVE POTENTIAL OF CONNECTING THE TWO

There is thus a synergy between the challenges to GCS-required birth certificate policies and the availability of Title IX relief for transgender students regarding the use of sex-segregated facilities. [...]there has been little or no crossover, in terms of advocacy or organizing, between these two movements. [...]an analysis of the surgical requirement issue alongside a Title IX analysis is helpful in illuminating the path to relief for these students. [...]Part IV presents a proposal to advance the interests of both transgender K-12 schoolchildren and transgender adults challenging surgical requirements for correcting identity documents. "30 "Gender dysphoria" is the clinical diagnosis applied to transgender people who suffer from anxiety or other negative mental health symptoms because of the mismatch between their gender identity and their sex assigned at birth.31 Importantly, being a transgender person is not, standing alone, an illness or pathology; many transgender people do not suffer any anxiety or negative health outcomes because they are transgender.32 However, those that do suffer-often because of the discrimination and ostracization they face from others-receive the gender dysphoria diagnosis.33 This diagnosis is controversial within the transgender community; a diagnosis remains a prerequisite for medical transition, but many disagree with the message that such a diagnosis sends, namely the pathologizing of being transgender, which is just one of many gender identities.34 B.The Origins of Gender Identity Recent scientific research reveals that gender identity is informed by a myriad of factors, not just a person's genitalia.