BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — The Brevard County School Board is upholding guidelines regarding transgender students regardless of continuing controversy around them.

“This is necessary to protect these kids,” said Brevard County LGBTQ advocate Shelley Rodden.

She came out to the Brevard County School Board meeting Tuesday to support guidelines that have been school board policy for years.

They are guidelines that protect transgender student rights — rights that have recently been threatened, Rodden said.

“The policy and the guidelines follow, align with state and federal law, so this is not anything that we need to go backwards on,” she said.

The guidelines were adopted several years ago and state that students may dress as the gender with which they identify and can access locker rooms and restrooms consistent with their gender identities, among other things.

But after the policy was recently written out and distributed to staff at the beginning of March, some parents and even politicians like State Rep. Randy Fine spoke out against them, loudly.

“It is also insane that the school will now let boys go inside girl’s bathrooms and let boys now play on girls sports teams," Fine said in a video he posted to Facebook in early March. "These are wrong, these are dangerous."

But proponents say the policy is not new.

Rodden poined out that in the years this policy has been in place, there have not been any incidents Brevard County schools.

“It’s not threatening in any way," she said. "There have been no cases of abuse, zero, since this took place."

But several people shared sentiments similary to Fine’s during public comment at Tuesday’s meeting.

Some said they felt the guidelines threatened their religious beliefs.

“We are the Christians of Brevard County, and all over the world, we will not sit silent and allow you to push your evil, sinful policies on our children,” one man said during public comments Tuesday.

LGBTQ advocates said some people who wanted to come and speak Tuesday didn’t feel safe to do so after they felt threatened at the last board meeting.

But many who attended the meeting Tuesday also spoke in favor of the guidelines, and the protection they provided for trans students.

“No child should have to feel that fear and pain," said another man during the public comments. "All children should have a safe and affirming environment and be able to be themselves.” 

Though the guidelines were not on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting, School Board members said they have no plans on chancing them.

Rodden and other advocates were happy the board had upheld the guidelines, but said it’s hurtful that they still have to fight for rights like these.

“It’s 2021, and we’re still OK with discriminating against students," Rodden said. "And it’s tragic, its a tragedy."

Fine has vowed to continue to fight guideliness like those in Brevard County through legislation.

He’s already co-sponsored a bill called the "Parents’ Bill of Rights," and said he’s working on a bill that would say, “boys cannot play on girl’s sports teams.”