Wyatt and Jonas Maines, 15, were born identical twins. However, Jonas, who loved to play with the usual boys’ toys, was completely different from Wyatt, who, from a young age preferred Barbie and other girls’ toys.
While they were growing up, Wyatt developed more and more behavior that you would expect from a little girl.
Wayne and Kelly Maines, the boys’ parents, said that when Wayne was a third grader, he would tell them that he was a “boy-girl,” according to the Bangor Daily News.
By the time Wyatt reached the fifth grade, he had let his hair grow long and had legally changed his name to “Nicole.” He also started wearing girls’ clothes on a regular basis.
Additionally, Wyatt had also started to use the girls’ restrooms at his elementary school, which apparently disturbed some of the students, both male and female.
In 2007, however, a boy at the same school, complained to his grandfather about Wyatt using the girls bathroom. The grandfather spoke to the school board, in a meeting backed by the Christian Civic League of Maine.
Wyatt was asked by school officials to start using the unisex staff bathroom instead of the girls’ restroom, but his parents were not pleased with the decision of the school. So, in 2008, they hired a lawyer and filed a lawsuit against the school.
The lawsuit has finally come before the Maine Supreme Court.
The boy’s family is being represented by Benett Klein, an attorney with the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders organization. In his brief, he stated that what the school did to Wyatt was nothing more than segregation.
However, Melissa Hewey, the schools defending attorney, thinks otherwise. She said that Maine’s state laws on human rights do not apply to this situation.
Hewey went on to write in her brief that “A school’s segregation of bathrooms on the basis of sex rather than gender identity does not constitute illegal discrimination under the Maine Human Rights Act.”
Gay activists are watching the case closely and they say that if the court, rule in favor of Wyatt, they will have won a major victory in the acceptance of gay and transgender rights.
In the meantime, Wyatt, who has been taking hormone injections to halt puberty and to stop the growth of facial hair, is planning to undergo gender-change surgery.
Wyatt said that he hopes that the decision of the Supreme Court will be in his favor so that other transgender students will not have to put up with what he has been through.
Wyatt’s brother, Jonas, said that he loved having a sister and that they have a very strong, loving relationship.
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