But after some parents complained, the school board adopted a policy requiring students to use either the restroom that corresponds with their biological gender or a private, single-stall restroom.
Advertisement
A transgender high-school student in Virginia may sue his school over its policy banning him from using the boys’ bathroom, according to a federal court decision Tuesday written by a SC judge. Gavin’s case, however, does have immediate implications for North Carolina’s controversial HB2 law, which includes a provision requiring transgender students to use the bathroom corresponding to the gender listed on their birth certificates.
In a statement reported by The New York Times, the ACLU and Lambda Legal said “this mean-spirited law not only encourages discrimination and endangers transgender students – it puts at risk billions of dollars in federal funds that North Carolina receives for secondary and post-secondary schools”.
At a news conference on the upcoming legislative session, state Senate leader Phil Berger referred to the law as “our commonsense bathroom safety bill” for its measures governing transgender bathroom access in many public buildings.
North Carolina’s Gov. Pat McCrory strongly disagrees with the 4th Circuit decision, he said on Tuesday afternoon in a meeting with reporters. He said he’s seeking an evaluation from state lawyers about whether public schools can continue to implement the state law while the Virginia defendants decide whether to appeal.
The appellate court reversed a district court’s dismissal of a Title IX claim by the student and said he could proceed with his lawsuit, which contends that the school board’s decision was discriminatory.
“This whole thing has been very hard”, said Grimm.
However, a three-judge Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled on Tuesday that the district court failed to obey the U.S. Department of Education interpretation of Title IX.
For months, school officials in rural Virginia, its Board of Education, civil liberties advocates, and the federal courts have been debating where transgendered teen Gavin Grimm can go to the bathroom while at school. “We have to evaluate the impact of this court ruling on existing legislation, on existing policy that we have throughout North Carolina, and I will do just that”, he said.
“To the extent the North Carolina law is similar to the issues in this case, I think the core legal question has been answered”, said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor.
Deady says the ruling from the 4th Circuit sets out guidance that discrimination based on gender identity, is the same as discrimination based on sex – and therefore, against federal law.
But despite the school’s efforts to offer a fair alternative to its transgender students, members of the LGBTQ community have construed the policy as discriminatory.
At least one physician has diagnosed Grimm with gender dysphoria, which means that Grimm insists she is actually a boy even though she was born with – and lived her life with – female reproductive organs. He said he believes that lawmakers contemplating bathroom restrictions for transgender people are “essentially on a collision course with federal law and federal courts”. It also asked for a preliminary injunction that would allow him to use the boys’ restrooms until the suit is decided.
This week, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights criticized the North Carolina law and said that it “jeopardizes not only the dignity, but also the actual physical safety, of transgender people”.
Advertisement
Judge Paul Niemeyer was the lone dissenter in the 2-1 ruling.
