Lost in the aftermath of the highly contested vote of a school district in Palatine, Ill., to allow boys claiming to be girls full access to sex-segregated spaces, was the girls whose privacy was being ignored. One former student, Emily Kaht, stood up before the vote and gave an impassioned speech that deserves reprinting in its entirety as a record of the war on women being waged on local school boards across this nation as they rip privacy and rights away from biological girls.
The following is a full and accurate transcript from a recorded public meeting at the District 211 School Board:
Good evening. I’m here to urge you not only to vote no on the proposed policy, but to reverse the existing policies that allow students any access to opposite-sex locker rooms or bathrooms at all.
Getting undressed is a big deal. Authorities have discovered privacy is important even in life-or-death situations. Responders who dealt with anthrax incidents struggled with full-grown adults who did not want to undress to be decontaminated, even though their lives were at risk. A study on the NIH’s website found that “provisions for protecting public privacy should be considered as a vital element of the decontamination process.” The Department of Homeland Security has issued a guide for such situations which instructs that privacy should include “segregation of males and females during decontamination.”
In other words, the government recognizes that even in life-or-death situations, the right to a sex-segregated space to undress must be respected. Yet you have been violating this right of your students, and not even because it’s a life-or-death emergency; you’ve been violating this right in order to appease a tiny segment of the population who wishes they had been born as the opposite sex.
A couple meetings ago, someone from the other side said they couldn’t believe this was even a debate in 2019. I agree. I can’t believe that in the era of Me Too and Time’s Up, when women are coming forward with stories of sexual assault and harassment, when we’re pushing more than ever for the right to set boundaries around our bodies, that we are having this conversation. This district’s policies violate the very basics of consent that feminists are trying to educate people on. For years, the refrain “No means no” was standard. It means that when a person says “no” regarding access to their bodies, it means no, no if’s, and’s, or but’s.
Multiple students here have explicitly communicated their “no” to undressing in front of opposite-sex students, and you have steamrolled over their boundaries anyway. And “no means no” isn’t even the modern standard anymore. The modernly accepted standard for consent is “yes means yes,” because it’s recognized that in intimate situations, people can feel too pressured and intimidated to say no. Therefore, the mere absence of a “no” cannot ethically be interpreted as a “yes.” The idea is that in order for consent to be valid, you must obtain an enthusiastic “yes.” It’s especially clear in this case that it would be wrong to interpret silence as a “yes,” because we have heard reports of students being afraid to stand up to this policy for fear of backlash and bullying.
These policies make me wonder how you teach consent in your sex-ed classes. Do you teach your girls that if a boy asks her to send nude photos and she doesn’t want to, she has to do it anyway because it will hurt his feelings otherwise? Do you teach your boys that if they’re undressing a girl who’s lying there silent and motionless, it’s okay to keep going as long as she doesn’t say “no” at any point? Unless you obtain an enthusiastic “yes” from every single one of the 12,000 students affected by this policy, you are violating someone’s consent.”
Kaht’s speech can be seen here at the 47:00 mark
Posted by D211 Parents for Privacy on Thursday, November 14, 2019
Kaht wasn’t the only woman left bewildered by the board’s 5-2 decision to force them to change in front of boys. Julia Burca, a current student and member of the varsity swim team, was interviewed after, near tears, describing her discomfort with being naked in a room with a boy. As you can see in the video, the boy is completely unconcerned with the fear and discomfort he is causing by insisting on having access to the girls’ changing rooms. His feelings are the only feelings that matter to him. The constant assault on girls by the trans lobbyists can only be described as an aggressive patriarchal movement. I’ve never identified as a feminist, but this constant assault on women by men who think their needs are more important than the privacy and modesty of girls may make me change my mind.
Remarkable video. First the cross dressing boy gloating that he gets access to girls locker rooms, and then the girl in tears and terrified now that she has to change around boys. You really are just evil if you support this.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) November 20, 2019
Where are the real feminists who will stand up for these terrorized girls? Besides a handful of second-wave feminists, who can see this for the woman-hating oppression that it is? What are the rest of them doing besides bowing to male authority? Being female is more than how you wear your hair or what clothes you put on. Femininity is not denoted by exaggerated makeup or over-sexualized exteriors. Female is not a costume. It is a biological reality that comes with its own specific weaknesses, strengths, and abilities. Childbirth and periods can only be experienced by females. Being female used to come with legal protections too.What is the “women’s movement” doing, besides celebrating their own demise by helping activists’ efforts to remove female symbols from tampon packaging? Let’s see what the useless sows are up to.
The National Organization for Women, instead of organizing to go rain fire on that school district for abusing girls the way they have, has moved on from women’s issues entirely and is agitating for illegal aliens.
Thanks to all who attended, volunteered, and spoke at our #UnlocktheFuture rally yesterday! It was a successful day fighting for #immigrantrights.https://t.co/touG0Pv9Rk
— National NOW (@NationalNOW) November 18, 2019
The Feminist Majority is advocating for men.
22 transgender and non-binary people have been murdered this year, most of them trans women of color. We must stand in solidarity with all transgender people and continue to #SayTheirNames while we work to end the violence: https://t.co/eQfigLaYhk#TransDayofRemembrance
— Feminist Majority (@MajoritySpeaks) November 20, 2019
Gloria Steinem is complaining about the lack of women-owned businesses.
Thank you @bumble and @WhitWolfeHerd for hosting such a wonderful conversation yesterday. Women-led and women-focused companies are a key to creating more equity and accountability in the digital world. I left buzzing and inspired!
⁰
Photograph by Laura Alexandra Delacruz. pic.twitter.com/rmN57Bes9L— Gloria Steinem (@GloriaSteinem) November 7, 2019
Naomi Wolf is trying to get Prince Andrew fired.
"'We as students at the University of Huddersfield and members of Huddersfield Students' Union should not be represented by a man with ties to organised child sexual exploitation and assault." As they lobby to boot Prince Andrew as Chancellor. Listening, @Harvard, @MIT, @Yale?
— Dr Naomi Wolf (@naomirwolf) November 19, 2019
Girls Inc. is stumping for mental health.
Kudos to these courageous girls for taking a stand and sharing about their personal struggles with mental health. Real change comes when we shatter the silence and break down stigmas. #MentalHealth https://t.co/pXsaHLgO6L
— Girls Inc. (@girls_inc) November 19, 2019
There isn’t one women’s or girls’ organization I can find that is organizing to stop the assault on the privacy and dignity of girls by the men who want to see them naked. Of all the times to sit down and shut up, the feminists have picked a doozy. Normally, you can’t stop them from pontificating endlessly about abuses against women. But in this case we have crying, minor girls being imposed upon by a boy who is refusing to take no for an answer and no one can muster any sympathy or help for the girls? It’s the boy who is getting all the support from people who claim to be pro-woman.
How are we to square the feminist philosophy that consent is the highest and most important element in male/female relationships? These girls are clearly denying their consent to a male in their locker room. No one cares. I vote for Emily Kaht to be the new voice of feminism going forward. She’s more coherent and relevant than any feminist I’ve heard in the last twenty years. Those so-called feminist organizations that refuse to stand up with Kaht and Burca and all the female students of District 211 who do not give their consent to this invasion of their privacy should be swept into the dustbin of history and never heard from again.
I want off this train. It’s never going to reverse course at this point. Wake me up when men decide women should stay inside and blacken the windows and wear shrouds when we go out in public. At least at that point I may find some other women who are sick of being subjugated by men.
Megan Fox is the author of “Believe Evidence; The Death of Due Process from Salome to #MeToo.” Follow on Twitter @MeganFoxWriter
