Former Chilean city council candidate Leonardo Ormazabal publicly opposed gender-neutral bathrooms in schools, saying they were “experimenting” on children. In response to these statements, Niki Raveau, an activist who supports transgender children, wrote this open letter. Dear Leonardo (Andrés, Jacqueline, Manuel, Francisco…)*: Regarding your Facebook post of May 26, 2017, where you stated: “How long are we going to keep experimenting on children? If you want to do these tests, do them first with adults and in public places. Children should be cared for and not exposed to uncomfortable and undignified situations for many of them. Are we asking more of children than adults? What has happened to our authority? Someone explain this to me…” Let me explain: not only have schools already implemented unisex or “mixed” bathrooms (transgender people prefer to call them “gender-neutral bathrooms”). It has also been done in spaces for “adults and in the public area”, for example in the Municipality of Recoleta, as well as in various universities.

“The bathrooms aren’t the real issue.”

Gender-neutral bathrooms are part of non-sexist educational policies. It has been a struggle to establish this concept and for it to be taken seriously. Sexism, machismo, and tradition are deadly and deaf to criticism. Here, the underlying issue isn't the bathroom itself. The underlying issue is that some students drop out of school because of their gender identity and expression. Should gender continue to be the historical reason why trans, transgender, intersex, and transvestite students abandon their studies? The social initiative and the work that organizations have been doing now have national support, thanks to the recent Transgender School Coexistence Circular issued by the Ministry of Education (which we helped draft). Bathrooms traditionally designated for "men" and "women" are always available, in addition to the optional gender-neutral bathroom. The gender-neutral bathroom is a measure that is implemented gradually and comprehensively: educational work and support are provided to the community. Schools with gender-neutral bathrooms have never been used for "experiments" or misunderstandings.

"Who experiments on children?" 

You state that “children should not be exposed to uncomfortable and undignified situations.” Could you elaborate on this point? Perhaps you haven't realized it, but with your ignorant and sensationalist social media post, on a smaller scale but similar to Allamand's absurdly retrograde pronouncements, Van Rhysselberghe's obstinate obstruction, Matta's about-face, and Chahuán's opportunistic view, you are inciting violence and exclusion from schools. Or do you really think that caring about children like transgender children, along with trying to provide minimum conditions for them to more easily manage their daily lives, is simply a whim or a desire for social “experimentation”? (You accuse others of “experimenting” with children. Who experiments with children, if you please answer that?). Let me give you an example along those lines: at the Transitar Foundation (where I work), there are more than 70 trans children and young people who live in real worlds and experience real consequences from words like yours. The only experiment is trying to live with dignity, despite that. Dear Leonardo: it seems we were both candidates for city council during the same election period. I ran precisely to try to open up a little more space for my community (I think I succeeded, and I don't plan to run for anything else in that arena). Well, because of the inflatable doll that certain politicians and businesspeople gave themselves, because of the number of femicides in the country, because of the number of schools that have left trans children and young people without an education, and because of "opinions" like yours, that space is shrinking even further. Sincerely, Niki Raveau (trans woman, Visual Arts teacher, graduate in Visual Arts, researcher in trans childhood, former candidate for councilor for Santiago). *Author's note: I am only interested in the former candidate's opinion as a pretext for a general argument and not on a personal level. ]]>