The Schrammie: Evergreen administrators have a lot to learn
»Play Video
Just what is that behind curtain number one?
Certainly nothing most parents would want to trade for on "Let's Make a Deal."
So if officials at Evergreen State College would just add a dash of common sense to their inexplicable policies, I'd like them to come on down.
Administrators at Evergreen continue to insist that state law requires them to put biological males into women's locker rooms, showers and saunas, so long as said males declare that they identify themselves as female.
Mind you, there are also minors who use the Evergreen facilities; meaning female children must contend with adult men with, shall we say, male "equipment," traipsing about with nary a thought given to whether they may actually be pedophiles and/or perverts.
Look, I am not without understanding for transgendered individuals.
But in terms of criteria, there has got to be more than just a simple declaration that a guy identifies as a woman.
Subjecting women and girls to guys who may want nothing more than seeing and being seen just isn't right.
The administrators at Evergreen may have all sorts of degrees in higher education, but they still have a lot to learn.
And putting women and girls together with naked guys and then hiding behind what they term "non-discrimination" is a lesson in waiting.
Which is why they need to take a bow, because this "Schrammie" is for them.
---
Have something to say to Ken? Login or signup below to post a comment. Just be sure to read the rules and keep things civil. You can also e-mail him at kenschram@komo4news.com. You can also connect with Ken on Facebook.
Certainly nothing most parents would want to trade for on "Let's Make a Deal."
So if officials at Evergreen State College would just add a dash of common sense to their inexplicable policies, I'd like them to come on down.
Administrators at Evergreen continue to insist that state law requires them to put biological males into women's locker rooms, showers and saunas, so long as said males declare that they identify themselves as female.
Mind you, there are also minors who use the Evergreen facilities; meaning female children must contend with adult men with, shall we say, male "equipment," traipsing about with nary a thought given to whether they may actually be pedophiles and/or perverts.
Look, I am not without understanding for transgendered individuals.
But in terms of criteria, there has got to be more than just a simple declaration that a guy identifies as a woman.
Subjecting women and girls to guys who may want nothing more than seeing and being seen just isn't right.
The administrators at Evergreen may have all sorts of degrees in higher education, but they still have a lot to learn.
And putting women and girls together with naked guys and then hiding behind what they term "non-discrimination" is a lesson in waiting.
Which is why they need to take a bow, because this "Schrammie" is for them.
---
Have something to say to Ken? Login or signup below to post a comment. Just be sure to read the rules and keep things civil. You can also e-mail him at kenschram@komo4news.com. You can also connect with Ken on Facebook.
who put this Ken on the air, Ken knows absolutely nothing about transsexuals...seems all his info comes from gay movies...KENNY, bird cage and mrs doubtfire have nothing to do with transsexuals you moron...BTW, out of the 10s of thousands of transsexuals living in America, where are any stories of them sexually abusing or flashing children?
There doesn't seem to be any cause for alarm anywhere in REALITY, only in your imaginative paranoid brain... Who knows, maybe buffalo bill is a real person...If I was this woman, I wouldn't want to talk to the news reporter reporting her as a man in the ladies room either...I would love to hear her side of the story but I think that would put her in even greater danger...
With all due respect Ken, it is you that has a lot to learn.The transgendered woman at the center of this controversy is a friend of mine.
She is not a "naked man" nor is she interested in abusing someone's child. She is registered in school as a woman, her drivers license lists her as a woman (physician documents are required for this)She is in the middle of her process, which involves hormones and counseling before they will do the operation. It is a arduous physically and emotionally painful process as it is.Do you really think she would be safe in the mens locker room?Did you know that she has had threats of physical violence made against her? That hate posters have appeared on campus? Did you know that she now has to have a police escort to go to class and has had to temporarily and voluntarily give up visitation with her children because she fears for their safety because of all of this?Did you know that many transgendered people are quite literally bullied to death and often resort to suicide?You Ken, are behaving just as badly as the rest of the bullies.
My 11 year old (biologically born male) announced at the age of 5 that she was a girl. Believe me, before that I knew NOTHING about transgender issues. This is not a journey that parents sign up for, but we love our children and want them to grow up happy and healthy. This is not a whim. She was a sad and angry child before the change in GENDER. Obviously an 11 year old is not gonna have re-assignment surgery. When we go to a pool or the YMCA, she uses the Ladies' Room. She would be traumatized in the Men's... and that would be FAR more potentially dangerous for her. As another person noted, lots of people are discreet in locker rooms... that is my kid. She doesn't wanna draw attention. Here is the important part that folks unfamiliar with "transgender" don't get: GENDER is NOT the same as SEXUALITY. I now believe that some folks are born in the wrong body. My kid can make the surgery decision when she is an adult. The flip comments about hetero men dressing in drag just to "peep" is ridiculous. Gender is about an individual's ENTIRE identity... not some whim. And until you've walked a mile in the shoes of someone transgender or the parent of someone transgender, please don't judge. That's just not right.
Does your 11 year-old little girl sit spread legged in the steam room? Does she engage in conversation with the other girls without covering? She may identify as a girl, but she has the equipment of a boy. There has to be some adjustment for that.
@subcaller: sir or madam, you are a disrespectful person who doesn't READ. The "adjustment for that" is that she is discreet (as I wrote above). I have to keep her safe from people like you who ask if she sits "spread legged in the steam room". Are you kidding me?
You are right. At Evergreen, Men cannot simply walk into the Women's locker room because they claim to be female. There IS MORE TO IT than just saying you are female Identified. This individual is able to because they have identified as female for years now. So much so that it is acknowledged on their state I.D.
Â
So yes, there is more to it. Get over the hype.
Â
@AnEvergreenStudent So, if the "equipment" doesn't matter, why have separate locker rooms at all.
Â
 @subcaller  @AnEvergreenStudent  The only person to state that "equipment" doesn't matter was Schrammie (and all the other reactionaries, like Fox radio) - falsely on the behalf of Evergreen. Both the State and the Evergreen State College believe "equipment" matter. The State acknowledges that gender is more complex than the dichotomy you adhere to - for the simple reason that a portion of the people they represent identify as so. The Evergreen State College adheres to State law. Here's the policy:
Â
http://www.evergreen.edu/policies/policy/nondiscriminationpoliciesandproceduresarchivedmarch2010
Â
So please grow up.
The Evergreen State College has separate lockers. In accommodation to a diverse community and the community's concerns the College has added a curtain space within the women's lock room. Its called accessibility. Â
Â
Â
Really? You are equating transgender people with those who "may want nothing more than seeing and being seen"? Such blatant discrimination. The law clearly states that public institutions may NOT discriminate again gender and gender identity. Please, go read up on the law before you make such prejudiced comments.
What they hell I think If you got the male plumbing you are a guy! I don't pretend to know what the heck a transgender person has going through their head that makes them think that way but hey you got the male parts you use the male locker room SHEESH how stupid can the need to be politically correct be!
The individual in question should be allowed a separate room in which to change clothes. Â while she may feel extremely uncomfortable in a locker room full of men, the comfort of the minor children who use the women's locker room must also be taken into consideration. Â While I applaud the fact that Evergreen did not simply ignore this individual's request to change somewhere other than the men's locker room, I feel that their solution is not well thought out as far as the rest of the community is concerned.Â
pretty sure most normal guys wouldn't want to see any Evergreen college woman naked. Unless they're doing field research for Gillette
Well, Ken... I find that we often disagree on issues but I'm glad to see that we're on the same page with this one. It is astonishing to me that men are being arrested and labeled as sex offenders for being "Peeping Tom's" and yet they allow this man to use the women's locker room. While I personally don't agree with the whole transgender issue or with having sex changes, I do have to agree with one comment I hear in relation to this, which was a "put up or shut up" type comment. Basically, if you want to use the women's locker room, get the plumbing changed out so we know you're serious about your preferences. I know that putting in a private shower/locker room would cost a lot of money but it seems that perhaps the world has come to a place where we need that.
I think one of the biggest problems I have with this is the fact that the females have no rights. All of the rights are given to the one person in question. I don't have a problem with the human body, I do have a problem with being in a public space whereas I am a female and having to share that space with an obviously physical male. This is a personal preference I have and it is not right or wrong it's just how I feel about the situation.
Academics Ken, they continue to confound normal folk.
If they are female in mind and trying to get there in body, why would you subject them to a men's locker room?!?
Â
A little common courtesy and not exposing what God gave ya would work both ways, don't ya think Ken?
.....now where's the Lil' liberal water mammal OrcaThunder? According to him/her, which I understood to be a typical leftist ACLU mindset, a 45 year old man SHOULD be allowed to jingle his sack in front of a child....his/her response was "just don't stare"
So Ken, I was wrong in my perception of liberals, at least you have a problem with this, as well as most folk with a shred of common sense.
Whatever you fear happening with multiple genders being in the same locker room or restroom happens in mono gendered spaces already. Any regulations should be aimed at behavior, not identity. Assuming perversion is linked to identity is a terrible approach. I don't make assumptions about priests, football coaches or Boy Scouts even though we have examples of those institutions having perpetuated the very crimes Schram is attempting to avoid with his bigoted view here. Ken, you are still lacking understanding of many gender issues with this one.
 @Sagesoph All you hetero guys who want to check out the women's showers, get your wigs and skirts ready.
@Harri Kari@Sagesoph
Oh come off it, Harri.
Â
You also display a lack of understanding of gender issues.
Â
 @WAbornnraised  @Harri Kari  @SagesophÂ
Au contraire. You my dear, display a profound lack of understanding of a sub class of horny perverse male heteros.
Simple solution Ken. One for men, one for women, and one for "other".
Let's look at the alternative. Having a female identified person getting beat up in a mens locker room. I am a transgender female who has been using female restrooms,  locker rooms and changing rooms for over 10 years. My safety is my #1 concern with a desire to not offend others coming in a very close second. One of us is Murdered at least every other day somewhere in the world just for being who we are. The law is correct and the college is too. Having said that I always use due caution when in 'open locker rooms'.
Christine, thank you so much for having the consideration to use caution when and where it's needed. Not many people these days seem to. My daughter very recently told myself, and then law enforcement, a deep dark secret about her father. She is already traumatized and trying to deal with it. Right now, anything sexual in nature is hard for her to deal with and seeing male genitalia in a place she considers "safe" would definately be difficult for her. Again, I thank you for being sensible and sensative, not just to yourself, but to others around you.
Oh no, girls might see what a penis looks like!
Â
The more you try to hide it, the more they will try to find it, and instead of it being some guys todger in a safe environment it will be hardcore porn on the internet when you aren't there. Which do you prefer?
Â
Americans are absurdly repressed when it comes to the human body. You can have decapitations on tv and no one cares, but show a nipple and the world is about to end.
 @therunner We have decapitations televised?
@DarkParty @therunner Try the walking dead on Sundays on AMC.. Yup. and its a awesome show.
Really people what difference does it really make? Women's restrooms have individual stalls so you can't see anything either way.
 @Mickey602 You missed the part of the article that says this is a locker room.  Not a simple bathroom.  I'm not making a statement about the issue one way or another, simply pointing out that yes, you can see everything in a locker room.
Nobody has EVER seen 'everything' in my case when I have used an open locker room. Many modest women change under a towel and that is what I do. I could NOT go into a mens locker room dressed or patially undressed without causing a uproar.
Â
Understood, and I was just pointing out that it really doesn't make any difference whether it's an open locker room or one with changing stalls (which I personally much prefer).
 @Christine All I said was yes, you CAN see everything.  I didn't say you'll see everyone's everything.  And I was simply responding to Mickey's comment about individual stalls in a restroom which is not relevant to this article.
When men can marry men, we're surprised that men enter women's restrooms?
Â
Welcome to your progressive new world, folks, courtesy of your politically correct liberal neighbors (and perhaps yourself, if you voted for R74).
 @wayne0004 it is amazing to me that you cannot see the difference in the issues you are attempting to connect one to the other.  The same brilliant type of logic that was used to argue that women shouldn't be given the legal right to vote, because as soon as that happened, voting rights would also be given to dogs and cows and horses.  I'd like to invite you to take a big, long step out of the stone age.Â
Please don't assign gender just by genitalia. There is MUCH more to it then that.
I say - if little willy is still attached, you're still a man and need to use the men's facilities. Â When you have the balls to go through with the gender change, then, you can use the women's facilities.Â
I don't have the 'balls' anymore hon...that was the only surgery I could afford. If you would like to pay for the rest of it for me I would be very greatfull. :-)  In the mean time, as I live full time as a woman and all of my ID states that I am female AND thanks to Estrogen I have breasts and look female I will continue to use only womens facilities. Are you saying that guys with a 'willy' (for whatever reason) should be strolling into a womens area?????
Â
Oopsie...should read "without a 'willy'"
@HappyMama thanks so much to you for being loving and understanding for your child. My mother was more like some of the troglodytes commenting here...but hey it really was the 50s when she caught me in some of her clothes and went ballistic.Â
As an aside I actually have both t-shirts and bumper stickers with the trans flag displayed next to the words "We are everywhere"
Â
 @Christine Cheers to you, Christine! As I said in my post, no parent nor child (nor adult) would "choose" such a difficult path. But denying my child how she FEELS and has felt all her life (just took her til the age of 5 to articulate it) would set her and us up for all kinds of mental anguish and depression. Funny thing to me is that if any of these folks who "don't get it" saw you or my daughter on the street, they'd have NO clue that you were any different from any other woman or girl. And it would be all the stranger for my "girly girl" to change in a Men's locker room because of her "equipment"... that would certainly draw MORE attention as the men would wonder, "What the heck is that little girl doing in here?" I'm so disappointed by how narrow minded some people can be...
Datsuyama, there is soooo much more involved then just making a statement of identity. There has always been perverts but very few guys have just 'put on a dress' and strolled in a ladies only area, there are easier and less embarrassing ways for them to get their jollies. That being said I would be among the first to react to seeing anyone male or female acting pervy in a locker room or restroom.  Most any Trans person who is at the stage of using ladies facilities has already been in therapy, been diagnosed with GID (gender identity dysphoria), probably has already started on hormone therapy. That is the standard path recommended by the HBSC (Harry Benjamin Standards OF Care).Â
Â
To all who are reading this...Please take genitalia out of the equation. Gender is Who We Are. I can put on jeans, a t-shirt and a ball cap (my usual mode of dress actually) and I am still a woman. It isn't about 'choice' we don't get to decide who we are. Our only 'choice' is what to do about it when our bodies don't match our core ID. Some can't face the consequences of transitioning due to family pressure, loss of income/jobs, the bigotry (one only has to read some of the comments here) and the social pressure of no longer fitting into the gender binary. We have the highest suicide rate in the nation. Transitioning isn't easy, it's the hardest thing I have ever had to do and it will never just be 'over'.Â
Â
 @Christine I am stating that unless you have gender reassignment surgery, you should not subject others to the likely unwanted exposure to opposite-sex genetilia.  This is a subject that parents should broach, not others in society.  To simply accept someone's statement that they "identify as a female" or the inverse, whichever, simply isn't enough.  It opens to doors for pedophiles to simply state, "I identify myself as ***" and then they have access to areas where kids should be able to feel safe.  You situation, since you've taken a significant step towards the reassignment, might be passable...  it's quite a bit more than a simple statement, it's action showing your commitment to your belief. Â
I am 100% in agreement solely because there are minor children who use the facilities. They should not have to be subjected to male genetalia in a place that is supposed to be safe for them. As a parent I would be furious if my daughter was subjected to that. If you are a male who identifies as a female, at least have some tact and be respectful of children.
@Tattooed_Angel  There is NO reason for minors to Be subjected to male genitalia. All that is required is a bit of modesty and courtesy. I agree with you on that point. I hope people will not over react and demand that I and others have to start putting ourselves at risk in a mens locker room which seems to be what Ken is suggesting.
Â
Time to get over the obsession of fearing a naked body. Certainly when ever you have children showering with adults certain precautions should be taken. But its just a human body. We're born naked and then our prejudices keep us covered up from that point. Washington is one of those rare states where you are actually legally allowed to walk around naked if you want. And it hasn't led to any real abuses. But yet we still try to outlaw public breast feeding?
 @Blindman But those issues should be left up to the parents to broach, in their own time... not some guy with identity issues forcing them to deal with it at that very moment. Â
 @Datsuyama  @Blindman I agree. If parents don't want their kids showering with adults then they shouldn't allow them too. People are worried about this minor issue but yet they are fine with the TSA sexually molesting their children just to fly on a plane. People seem to be so inconsistent with their beliefs.
Shut up Ken!  I'm realizing my life's dream and smack in the middle of moving to Olympia and identifying as a woman!  I had no idea it could be this easy to get myself into a woman's locker room (and it's legal!)-- I could have saved myself so much time and effort!!!
I'm with Ken. Â This is so wrong what ESC is up to.
I'm with Ken. These minors they are referring to are high school girls (from the swim teams)
If the school wants to have this policy, fine but minors shouldn't have to be subjected to it.