Abstract
At the intersection of educational inequity and systemic marginalization, transgender youth face some of their greatest obstacles upon walking through the schoolhouse door—ranging from legislative attacks and gender negation to denied facility access and pervasive bullying. In rural K-12 public schools—where populations are often smaller, more demographically homogenous, and vie for more socially conservative policies—trans youth are particularly vulnerable. Within this context, this piece centers the experiences of transgender students in rural K-12 public schools—highlighting the sociocultural dynamics and systemic barriers that continue to marginalize them within the United States education system today. Through a blend of literature synthesis and personal narrative, I draw from my lived experience as both a former trans student and a current educator in a Virginia public secondary school to illustrate how school policies and practices make it difficult for trans kids to board the bus each morning. Framed as a counter-narrative, this work challenges dominant assumptions about transgender youth in public education and amplifies the realities too often left out of policy conversations. While change is slow and nonlinear at the federal and state levels, my hope is that sharing my story spotlights the resilience of our trans youth and encourages educators to do all they can to reframe and improve their experiences.
Methodological Approach
Qualitative
DOI
https://doi.org/10.60808/zaar-a549
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
LeClair, A. (2026). Beyond the Bathroom: Systemic Barriers to Trans Student Success. Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.60808/zaar-a549
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Included in
Education Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons
