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December 20, 2007

Transgender student fights for rights

Ethan Santiago, a transgender student at Northern Essex Community College, is fighting school officials' refusal to assign him a locker in the men's locker room.

Santiago, 20, was born Elizabeth Santiago, but said he lives and identifies as a man.

But his college ID | the one he had to show when he made the locker request | says differently. It lists his legal name and gender: Elizabeth. Female.

Nita Lamborghini, an assistant dean, consulted the school's lawyer before making a decision.

The lawyer recommended that the school deny Santiago's request.

"Our legal counsel indicated that an individual's anatomy determines which space they should use," said Lamborghini.

Santiago is still anatomically female. He has not had surgery to change his gender, but is in psychotherapy and taking hormone therapy while considering that option.

Lamborghini said the school's decision was also based on fear that he would not be safe in the men's locker room. Santiago said Lamborghini told him she would feel responsible should he be harmed.

But Santiago said the school's fear of legal action is a more likely reason for the denial.

"She (Lamborghini) is not responsible for what happens to me because everything I'm doing is legal and I know the risks. The risks I have walking in to a men's locker room are the same risks I have using the men's rest room every day here at school, and walking down the street as an obvious gay person," Santiago said.

Lamborghini said her decision to seek a legal opinion was not influenced by any personal position or opinion.

"I wanted to make certain we were doing the right thing from a legal perspective," said Lamborghini, assistant dean of college life and healthy living.

Disappointed with his meeting with Lamborghini, Santiago went to the Learning Accommodations Center, which helps students with special circumstances. Mary Chatigny in the school's Human Resources Department, helped him write an official Affirmative Action discrimination grievance against the school.

Santiago, saying college policies don't recognize transgender students, filed the grievance at Northern Essex on Oct. 3, claiming gender identity discrimination.

He was trying to quietly evoke change to school policy in order to protect transgender students, but when things didn't proceed, he decided to go public and approached the school's award-winning newspaper, the "Observer" this month. Santiago is willing to take his case to the courts.

"I'm trying to get it added to the rules of the school that transgender people are protected, even if they aren't protected under the rules of the state. Something has got to change," Santiago said.

In his complaint, Santiago wrote, that "by Massachusetts law, he could not be denied the use of the 'opposite sex' rest room, so he wasn't. He was, however, denied an official locker in the men's area. He believes this to be an act of discrimination, though, in all probability, not a malicious one."

Lamborghini said she is willing to try to create a gender-neutral locker room space to satisfy the needs of some students, while keeping the needs of other students in mind.

But in the complaint, Santiago also wrote that "the only solution is for him to be granted his right to a locker in the men's locker room, and that although having gender-neutral areas may be fantastic for some, he considers himself to be a male, and therefore deserves the right to be treated as such."

Lamborghini suggested that Santiago use the locker room for visiting sports teams as well as the handicapped bathroom near the men's locker room, but Santiago said he would feel isolated doing that.

"Using that locker room would separate me from the rest of the student body. I felt like I was being shoved to the side," Santiago said.

Santiago does not play a sport at the school, but he works out in the gym to help with back problems.

"I believe that trying to deny me an official space is just discrimination. They are afraid that someone will sue the school or that I'll sue if I get beaten up or something."

Santiago said he is willing to provide a written statement that he will not sue the school should something happen to him.

"I want my space. I want other people like me to not have to deal with this," Santiago said. "I want to be treated like a normal guy. If people know I'm transgender before they know me, then they'll look at me as this kid named Ethan who is really a girl, and they'll treat me that way.

"But if they have the basis of me as a guy, and they find out later, then they'll be like, 'I didn't know, but you're still a guy to me because that's how I know you.' They don't already have this idea in their head about me," Santiago said.



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