Transgender student wins fight to overturn Virginia school bathroom policy

A federal appeals court ruled in favour of a Virginia transgender high school student, saying that he can proceed with a discrimination lawsuit against the school board for their decision to ban him from using a boys’ restroom.

Gavin Grimm, 16, sued the Gloucester school board on the grounds that the school was violating the Title IX amendment, which protects students against gender discrimination at schools that receive federal funding. The US Court of Appeals for the 4th District’s ruling with the student determines that the amendment protects the right of transgender students to use facilities that are in line with their gender identities.

The 4th District's ruling - a 2-to-1 decision - could have a significant impact on laws that dictate bathroom usage based on "biological gender" in schools and beyond.

“I feel so relieved and vindicated by the court’s ruling,” the teenager said in a statement. “Today’s decision gives me hope that my fight will help other kids avoid discriminatory treatment at school.”

Joshua Block, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Project, said that the court’s decision was a “reinforcement” of existing policy by the Department of Education. “With this decision,” he said, “we hope that schools and legislators will finally get the message that excluding transgender kids from the restrooms is unlawful sex discrimination.”

A US District Court initially denied Mr Grimm’s claim that the school violated Title IX, despite receiving a statement of interest in the case from the Department of Justice. The judge ruled that students’ privacy rights trump hardships of transgender students who are barred from using restrooms consistent with their gender identity.

Mr Grimm said that he had been allowed to use the corresponding restroom on school grounds without protest from the school board. He alleges that the board bowed to pressure from parents and passed a policy that requires students to use restrooms based on their “biological genders.”

A wave of bills and laws regulating restroom on the basis of “religious freedom” have swept the US South. North Carolina Gov Pat McCrory signed into law a bill that requires individuals use restrooms based on their biological gender assignment - as opposed to gender identity - in public and state facilities. Similar legislation was passed in Mississippi.

The laws have been called ‘anti-LGBT’ and have inspired boycotts from states, municipalities, major corporations, and touring musicians.

LGBT advocates see the Court of Appeals ruling as a “beacon of hope in the face of increasingly hostile rhetoric against transgender people in Virginia, and across the nation,” according to Gail Deady, the Secular Society Women’s Rights Legal Fellow at ACLU of Virginia.

And the ruling also may act as encouragement for transgender youths during a formative period in their lives.

“Matters like identity and self-consciousness are something that most kids grapple with in this age range,” said Mr Grimm. “When you’re a transgender teenager, these things are often very potent.”