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DOJ’s Lawsuit Against North Carolina Is Abuse of Power

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North Carolina has sustained unrelenting and coordinated attacks from big business, the entertainment industry, the American Civil Liberties Union, and now the federal government over its commonsense bathroom policies.

Gov. Pat McCrory and the North Carolina Legislature have had enough of this bullying and filed separate lawsuits against the Department of Justice Monday in the reasonable expectation that a federal judge will order the ideologues at the Department of Justice to back off.

The Department of Justice filed its own suit in response hours later. At stake is up to $4.5 billion in federal education funding under a 1972 law known as Title IX, and a sea change in employment relations if the Department of Justice prevails under a 1964 law known as Title VII.

I must say, I’m very disappointed in my former colleagues at the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice. They know very well that when Congress banned discrimination “on the basis of sex” in 1964 and 1972, it did not mean “gender identity.”

It disrespects the very notion of the rule of law for them to hold otherwise, but that is exactly what they have done by threatening North Carolina with lawsuits, fines, and revocation of federal funds because they dared to write in law what most people consider simple common sense—that biological men should not be given unfettered access to public bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms set aside for the needs, safety, and privacy of biological women.

But if you thought the latest front in the bathroom wars was limited to North Carolina, you’d be mistaken.

Laws from the 1960s and 70s designed mostly to protect girls and women from rampant sexism and harassment at work and in schools are now being used by the Department of Justice to cow school districts to grant boys the right to undress in the girls’ locker room (and vice versa), all in the name of psychological comfort and acceptance. When President Barack Obama said he still has a pen and a phone this is apparently what he meant.

These developments prove that same-sex marriage was merely the start, not end, of the left’s LGBT agenda. The radical left is using government power to coerce everyone, including children, into pledging allegiance to a radical new gender ideology over and above their right to privacy, safety, and religious freedom.

The people of North Carolina did not pick this fight. It was thrust upon them by the city of Charlotte after it passed an ordinance requiring private businesses and schools to change their bathroom policies to allow men in the women’s bathrooms. Charlotte was the aggressor and North Carolina restored the status quo that let businesses decide their own bathroom policies.

To see how radical the left’s agenda is, consider that North Carolina law allows accommodation of people who identify as transgender with single-occupancy facilities in government facilities, so people who identify as transgender will have more options than those who don’t. But the left and the Department of Justice have rejected this reasonable approach, and insist on nothing less than total victory by total affirmation.

To add to the problems, the definition of gender identity changes about every three months, so the rules we are supposed to live by are constantly moving. Under proposed rules from the Department of Health and Human Services, sex would mean not just male or female, but also “neither, both, or a combination of male and female.”

Indeed, a few months after the federal government forced a neighboring school district to allow boys into the girls’ locker rooms or lose federal education funds, Chicago Public Schools discovered that sex is merely “a label a person is assigned at birth” and that the reality lies in one’s internal “psychological knowledge” of their own gender “regardless of the[ir] biological sex.”

This includes “male/man/boy, female/woman/girl, trans/transgender, gender variant, gender nonconforming, agender, gender non-binary, or any combination of these terms.” According to the left and some corporations, there are 60 possible gender identities.

The people of North Carolina should not be blamed for resisting such radical changes when there are real victims on the other side. Students in school districts facing these novel bathroom policies have spoken out against them and in favor of privacy.

Female victims of sexual abuse have explained that, while they are careful not to associate transgender people with predatory behavior, they cannot deny that seeing any stranger of the opposite sex undressing in intimate settings can be traumatizing and trigger memories of past abuse. Their voices deserve to be heard, too. And we are already seeing allegations of men not even identifying as women taking advantage of laws that have mandated access to locker rooms and bathrooms based on gender identity. That these laws will be abused are not unfounded fears:

-Virginia, Nov. 17, 2015, a man dressed as a woman arrested for spying into mall bathroom stall.

-California, April 2016, Fullerton man arrested on suspicion of filming people in a Chapman University bathroom.

-Maryland, Feb. 10, 2016, Maryland teacher charged with filming sex videos in school bathroom.

-Ohio, March 22, 2016, teen arrested after videotaping a 13-year-old girl in the bathroom and forwarding the video to other students.

-Iowa, Feb. 16, 2016, University of Iowa Police locate suspect videotaping in women’s shower.

-Pennsylvania, April 21, 2016, Pennsylvania man arrested for taking photos of a 10-year-old girl in a public restroom.

These are a sampling of examples found here and here.

But whatever one thinks about gender identity, safety, and modesty, it is not the Department of Justice’s role to make up the law on this issue simply because it thinks it is lacking. Can we really still speak of it as “law” when one administration’s ideologically driven “guidance” and reinterpretations can potentially lead to overruling duly-enacted state laws?

If the next administration revokes the Department of Justice’s guidance, will the allegedly unlawful behavior instantly become lawful?

Our Constitution was designed to prevent this sort of arbitrary concentration of power and North Carolina was right to push back against the federal government’s unprecedented overreach. (For more from the author of “DOJ’s Lawsuit Against North Carolina Is Abuse of Power” please click HERE)

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New Chicago Schools Bathroom Policy Proves Liberals’ Extreme Agenda

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Chicago Public Schools announced on Monday that students and staff must be granted unfettered access to intimate school facilities based on their chosen gender identity.

Put concretely, boys now have the “right” to undress in the girls’ locker room before gym class so long as they say they would feel more comfortable doing so. Kids and teens have many things to worry about as they grow into adulthood and get an education. But having to deal with people of the opposite sex in their bathrooms and showers shouldn’t be one of them.

This latest front in the bathroom wars proves that same-sex marriage was merely the start, not end, of the left’s LGBT agenda. As demonstrated by enforcement actions by the Department of Justice, private lawsuits, and court decisions, the radical left is using government power to coerce children into pledging allegiance to a radical new gender ideology over and above their right to privacy, safety, and religious freedom.

Here’s how it works. First, the left tried to elevate sexual orientation and gender identity to special protected status in law but failed repeatedly using the democratic process. Undaunted, the administration turned to lawmaking-by-rulemaking. Specifically, President Barack Obama’s Departments of Justice and Education issued diktats reinterpreting Title IX’s ban on sex discrimination in federally funded education programs to mean “gender identity discrimination.”

Of course, when Title IX was passed in 1972, “sex” referred then to what it still refers to now: the basic biological reality of being male or female. Nevertheless, having made their discovery to the contrary (over 40 years after the law was passed), the administration went around the country threatening schools with revocation of millions in educational funds if they did not allow kids unfettered access to the locker room of their choice.

Following this lead, Chicago Public Schools cites Title IX and sexual harassment policies to justify its new policies.

A law from the 70s designed mostly to protect girls and women from sexism and harassment in schools is now being used to grant boys the right to undress in the girls’ locker room (and vice versa), all in the name of psychological comfort and acceptance.

In a weak acknowledgement of the uproar this will cause, Chicago Public Schools says students that are not gender confused “should” be allowed access to alternative facilities. So, for example, if there are 50 girls who object to a boy undressing in front of them, it is the 50 girls, not the boy, who must go change in “single stall restrooms” elsewhere. Of course, the odds are high that school officials on the lookout for any sign of “bullying” will take careful note of which students leave the locker rooms, presuming they are allowed to leave at all.

To add to the confusion, the definition of gender identity changes about every three months, so the rules we are supposed to live by are constantly moving. But the latest definition, according to Chicago Public Schools, is that sex is merely “a label a person is assigned at birth” and that the reality lies in one’s internal “psychological knowledge” of their own gender “regardless of the[ir] biological sex.”

This includes “male/man/boy, female/woman/girl, trans/transgender, gender variant, gender nonconforming, agender, gender non-binary, or any combination of these terms.” Whatever bureaucrat or committee wrote this definition felt compelled to add that gender nonconforming also covers “gender expansive, gender variant, or gender creative,” apparently to cover all the bases, except they may have missed some because the latest count, according to the left and some corporations, is 60 possible gender identities.

Under this definition, the only possible way we can know a person’s gender identity is by asking them, and if they consistently answer the same thing, bingo, that’s their gender identity. If Chicago Public Schools or the Department of Justice simply required separate private facilities for the minuscule number of students who are not comfortable changing in front of people of their own sex, there would not be a national debate over bathrooms.

Except they require that if a boy says he is a girl, he must be treated exactly like a girl in every respect, otherwise it is psychologically traumatic and illegal discrimination. This means that portions of sex education classes reserved just for girls (so they can speak with less trepidation about sensitive topics, like menstruation) must include every boy that feels like a girl.

And therein lies the biggest affront from these new policies. Not only must government employees play along with a gender confused child’s every subjective wish, so must every other student. In fact, Chicago Public Schools specifies that students must address a gender confused child by whatever pronoun they wish, be it “they, their, ze, he and she.” Failure to do so “will result in appropriate consequences for offending staff and students,” in other words, discipline up to and including expulsion from school.

But many people of good will and faith conviction simply refuse to put aside their legitimate privacy, modesty, and safety concerns. Many children of good will resist being forced to say “she” when speaking of a boy they have known for years just as they would resist being forced to say “5” when asked “What does 2+2 equal?”

The left for years claimed that all it wanted was for LGBT persons to be left alone, but this was a lie. It is now clear that liberals and their enablers will not leave anyone alone and will use the full force of courts, lawsuits, and government to ensure any resistance to their new gender ideology “will result in appropriate consequences.” (For more from the author of “New Chicago Schools Bathroom Policy Proves Liberals’ Extreme Agenda” please click HERE)

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Bathrooms Are Just the Beginning: A Scary Look Into the Trans Movement’s End Goals

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The battle over men accessing women’s bathrooms and vice versa has little do with bathrooms or even transgenderism, a well-known LGBT activist admitted last week. It has everything to do with re-working society and getting rid of the “heterobinary structure” in which we live—eliminating distinctions between “male” and “female” altogether.

Riki Wilchins, who has undergone “sex change” surgery and is a far-left social change activist, wrote in the gay publication The Advocate last week that social conservatives and many LGBT activists are missing the point when it comes to the transgender bathroom debate . . .

People should be able to enter whatever bathroom “fits their gender identity,” Wilchins wrote, but the fact that we even have “male” and “female” bathrooms reflects something about society that needs to change . . .

Transgenderism presumes that a man can be “trapped” inside a woman’s body and a woman can be “trapped” inside a man’s body. It encourages men “becoming” women to embrace femininity and wear dresses and make-up. Similarly, transgenderism encourages women “becoming” men to make themselves more masculine through hormones and by altering their appearances, reinforcing the notion that men look and act a certain way.

“The long-term goals of many LGBT activists are actually not just access to the restrooms of their preferred gender identity, but actually destroying the concept of gender or the separation of the genders altogether,” Peter Sprigg, Senior Fellow for Policy Studies at the Family Research Council, told LifeSiteNews. Sprigg noted that when LGBT activists are appealing to a mainstream audience, they “are accepting or implicitly accepting the separation of male and female facilities” like bathrooms. (Read more from “Bathrooms Are Just the Beginning: A Scary Look Into the Trans Movement’s End Goals” HERE)

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50 Families Sue Over Illinois High School’s Transgender Bathroom Policy

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A group of 50 families whose children attend a high school in Illinois filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday, attempting to reverse a policy that allows a transgender student to use girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and other sex-specific facilities.

The families are challenging a policy at Township High School District 211 that was mandated by the U.S. Department of Education to accommodate the transgender student, who was born male but identifies as a female.

“It’s an organic group of parents and students who came together and said, ‘We have to do something about this—we can’t just roll over and allow the federal government to force our school to commingle the sexes in locker rooms,’” said Jeremy Tedesco, a lawyer representing the families.

The suit, which challenges the Education Department’s authority to redefine the term sex in Title IX of U.S. law to include gender identity and to enforce it against schools, is the first of its kind, Tedesco told The Daily Signal.

The president of the group filing the lawsuit, Students and Parents for Privacy, said she and other Cook County parents with children in the school district decided legal action “was the only thing we could do at this point.”

“We tried,” she said, adding:

We did everything we could to work with the school district, and we were really hoping they would do the right thing and protect the privacy of all students, but when they chose not to, we felt we had no choice in order to protect the girls in the locker room.

The group’s president asked that her name not be published because of the sensitive nature of the case.

The issue began in December 2013, when Student A filed a complaint with the Education Department against Township High School District 211, based in the village of Palatine, Ill.

The complaint alleged that District 211 had discriminated against the transgender student on the basis of sex.

After completing an extensive investigation, the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights said on Dec. 2 that Township High School District 211 was in violation of federal law for refusing to grant Student A full access to the girls’ locker room.

The school had granted Student A some accommodations, including changing the student’s name on official records, allowing the student on the girls sports teams, and granting the student access to the girls’ bathrooms. But District 211 drew the line at providing Student A unrestrained access to the girls’ locker rooms because of the privacy concerns of other girls using them. Instead, the school offered a private facility to Student A.

Daniel Cates, superintendent of District 211, said in an October newsletter:

The goal of the district in this matter is to protect the privacy rights of all students when changing clothes or showering before or after physical education and after-school activities, while also providing reasonable accommodations to meet the unique needs of individual students. Our responsibility is to provide an environment conducive to learning for all its 12,000+ students.

According to the Education Department’s investigation, the student felt “crushed” by the school district’s decision not to allow access to the locker rooms, “which she said indicated that the school did not accept her as a female.”

After the Education Department had completed its investigation, it ordered District 211 to grant Student A full access to the girls’ locker rooms and install privacy curtains inside those locker rooms, or else be at risk of losing federal financial assistance.

Thomas Petersen, director of community relations at Township High School District 211, said the school “could potentially lose up to $6 million in federal funding.”

Now, the 130 parents and students who are members of the group Students and Parents for Privacy are suing, arguing the Education Department lacks the authority to redefine sex in Title IX of U.S. law to include gender identity.

The parents and students also are asking for an injunction against the Justice Department, which has enforcement authority under Title IX, and an injunction against Township School District 211 from carrying out the Education Department’s demands.

The Christian legal aid group Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the parents and students, along with local support from lawyers at the Thomas More Society.

“What we’re attempting to do in this case is stop the Department of Education from redefining sex in Title IX to include gender identity,” Tedesco, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Daily Signal. “It has no authority whatsoever to do that.”

Debate Over Title IX

Title IX is the federal law that bans discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program. Whether or not Title IX applies to transgender students is an issue that has been vigorously debated, with courts ruling on both sides.

Most recently, a federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled that a transgender high school student who was born female but identifies as a male has the right to pursue discrimination charges against a school district for blocking access to the boys’ bathrooms.

The judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit cited the Obama administration’s interpretation of Title IX in issuing their 2-1 decision.

The Obama administration stated in a 2014 document that “Title IX’s sex discrimination prohibition extends to claims of discrimination.”

Tedesco called the ruling in Virginia a “complete outlier,” arguing that other courts have ruled the opposite way:

There’s been several courts that have addressed the question of whether Title IX applies to and protects against gender identity discrimination, and all those courts up to the 4th Circuit’s decision have said it does not.

If Americans want to add additional protections for gender identity, Tedesco said, it’s the job of Congress—not the Education Department—to make those changes. He said:

If Congress wants to redefine sex to include gender identity—if they want to add gender identity as a protected class under Title IX—they can do that through the regular lawmaking process. But Congress has rejected it several times, so the Department of Education just comes in and makes it up and adds it to the law. That’s something they have no authority whatsoever to do. And now they’re running around the country and forcing essentially what is a new Department of Education rule against schools across the country.

Since 2010, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., has proposed that Congress pass a measure that would provide protections for students from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Thus far, that legislation has failed.

Township High School District 211 is the first school in the nation that the Education Department found in violation of Title IX over transgender issues. Now, it’s the first school in the country to face a lawsuit of this kind.

The Path Forward

In December, six female students attempted to explain to the District 211 school board why they were uncomfortable with allowing Student A into their locker room.

“Although we will never fully understand your personal struggle,” the girls said, addressing the transgender student, “please understand that we, too, all are experiencing personal struggles that need to be respected.”

The president of Students and Parents for Privacy said she supports accommodations for Student A that balance the student’s interests with the rest of the student body.

“We understand why Student A doesn’t want to be in the boys’ locker room,” she said. “We get it. But the girls’ locker room isn’t the answer either. We believe in accommodation, but we don’t believe in an accommodation that hurts other students.”

Student A, who is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, said in an earlier press release that using a separate locker room “stigmatized me, often making me feel like I was not a ‘normal person.’”

At the December school board meeting, one speaker called the old policy “institutionalized segregation.” Others brought up the high rates of suicide and depression for transgender men and women.

The head of the privacy group, who has children in the school district, said the group cares about Student A but is asking for fairness. She said:

We truly do care about these children who struggle with gender identity, and these children are welcome in my home. All I ask is that the respect go both ways. That’s what we’re not seeing. We’re just seeing demands.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, hinges on the idea that the school can and should make accommodations for Student A, but those accommodations shouldn’t violate the privacy and safety rights of other students.

Absent the lawsuit, Tedesco suggested, there’s little chance of finding middle ground.

“The reality is, the folks driving this agenda on the other side from us won’t accept anything other than full access to the opposite-sex restroom and locker room as the solution,” the families’ lawyer said, adding:

And what happened at District 211 is proof positive of that. They gave Student A accommodation after accommodation after accommodation, and ultimately the [Education Department] said no, full access is the only thing that’s going to solve the issue.

(For more from the author of “50 Families Sue Over Illinois High School’s Transgender Bathroom Policy” please click HERE)

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How Wal-Mart and Other Retailers Have Responded to Target Bathroom Policy

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERATarget’s announcement last week that it will let customers and employees use bathrooms based on their gender identity set off a firestorm competitors appear to reluctant to enter.

As reported by Western Journalism, nearly one million people have signed a petition (editor’s note: now over one million), to date, pledging not to shop at Target until it changes its policy of allowing men to enter women’s restrooms.

The Faith Driven Consumer encouraged its millions of supporters to #BuycottWalmart in a response to Target’s corporate policy. The organization began the Faith Equality Index last fall, which measures how faith-friendly a company is based on a number of issues including “Christmas” seasonal advertising, the causes the corporation contributes to (whether pro-life, abortion, etc.), and workplace discrimination policies.

“[H]undreds of thousands of consumers around the country are expressing frustration because they specifically feel excluded by Target’s actions and, more importantly, unprotected and unsafe in Target stores. They have reacted by signing up to boycott the retailer,” said Chris Stone, founder of the FDC.

“We believe a BUYcott offers consumers what they actually need and want. If you are unsatisfied with Target, the most effective way forward is a BUYcott — actively doing business with another brand that is a better fit for you. And in this case, that better fit is archrival Walmart,” he added.

Wal-Mart scored significantly higher than Target on the index. Western Journalism reached out to Wal-Mart to determine what its response is to the new Target policy, but so far the company has been mum. (Read more from “How Wal-Mart and Other Retailers Have Responded to Target Bathroom Policy” HERE)

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North Carolina Lawmaker: ‘Keep Our State Straight’

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Gay_pride_Istanbul_at_Taksim_SquareRhetorical skirmishes continued Tuesday in North Carolina over a law limiting protections for LGBT people, as Democrats criticized a Republican’s plea to “keep our state straight.”

The criticism came a day after dueling demonstrations drew thousands of protesters for and against the law, ending with the arrests of 54 people voicing their opposition to the law in the Legislative Building.

At a demonstration supporting the law earlier Monday, the state’s Republican nominee for attorney general, state Sen. Buck Newton, urged the crowd to “tell your friends and family who had to work today what this is all about and how hard we must fight to keep our state straight.”

The North Carolina Democratic Party issued a statement Tuesday calling the comments hateful and discriminatory toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. They called for Newton, who shepherded the legislation through his chamber, to apologize.

Newton told reporters on Tuesday that the phrase “keep our state straight” had nothing to do with sexual orientation. “It means keep men out of the ladies’ room,” he said. (Read more from “North Carolina Lawmaker: ‘Keep Our State Straight'” HERE)

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L.A. Woman Photographs What She Witnessed in a Target Restroom

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Target_Albemarle_Rd_Charlotte,_NC_(7579989322)[Editor’s note: Snopes – which is by no means authoritative – quotes a Target spokesman in suggesting that Target has not installed urinals in any of its stores’ transgender-friendly “women’s” bathrooms. However, as of the time of this post, no one has interviewed the woman who allegedly took the picture seen below. Whether the installation of any urinals in Target’s ex-female restrooms has begun or not, the fact that Target would allow any man in a woman’s restroom to then urinate on a woman’s toilet seat is despicable enough] Only days after the Target Corp. issued a release confirming its stance on the issue of transgender restrooms, a patron noticed something in the women’s restroom that she felt compelled to photograph.

A statement released by Target on April 19 called “inclusivity” a core value belief of Target that should be celebrated.

The statement said, “We welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity.”

In a Facebook post, Karen Crawford said, “It’s true. ..I’m in the women’s bathroom at a Target north of LA…they actually took out a stall for women in order to accommodate the ones who have giblets…yes, these are urinals…for men…and so the war on women progresses. …” . . .

One follower posted: “Dear Target, thank you for being so ‘inclusive’ as to allow men who identify as women to use the rest room with women who identify as women. Some people believe safety, privacy, dignity, and reality are more important considerations than political correctness, but it’s wonderful to see you taking a stand against those bigots. Why should our wives and daughters be treated with decency when there are cross dressing dudes to appease? Again, thank you for your bravery.” (Read more from “L.A. Woman Photographs What She Witnessed in a Target Restroom” HERE)

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More Than 500,000 Boycott Target Over Transgender Bathroom Policy

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Target_store_Scottsdale_Centre_in_Delta,_BCA conservative Christian activist group has gained more than half a million signatures and counting from people pledging to boycott Target over its transgender bathroom policy.

The petition started by the American Family Association on Wednesday raises concerns that Target’s inclusive stance on transgender rights encourages sexual predators and puts women and young girls in danger, because “a man can simply say he ‘feels like a woman today’ and enter the women’s restroom.”

The boycott has more than 517,000 signatures as of Monday afternoon, marking it as one of AFA’s most popular campaigns.

“This is the best response we’ve ever had this quick,” says AFA President Tim Wildmon, attributing the protest’s viral nature to the fact that “everybody knows who Target is, and it’s an easy-to-understand issue” . . .

Target made its position public in a blog post last week, stating that the company welcomes “transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity.” The announcement comes as legislation on transgender issues in multiple states has spurred several major corporations and businesses to take a stance on LGBT rights. (Read more from “More Than 500,000 Boycott Target Over Transgender Bathroom Policy” HERE)

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European Nations Join Transgender Jihad Against North Carolina, Mississippi Stand for Traditional Values

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Respect_and_Equality_for_All_Trans_People_(4764133272)_(2)The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice for the United States, warning gay and transgender travellers to be careful in the US due to legislation in North Carolina and Mississippi.

Newly-passed laws in both states allow businesses to refuse service to LGBT people, and the so-called “bathroom law” – a ruling that transgender people must use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender on their birth certificate – has sparked waves of protest and business boycotts.

“The US is an extremely diverse society and attitudes toward LGBT people differ hugely across the country,” the update states. “LGBT travellers may be affected by legislation passed recently in the states of North Carolina and Mississippi. Before travelling please read our general travel advice for the LGBT community. You can find more detail on LGBT issues in the US on the website of the Human Rights Campaign.”

Ty Cobb of the Human Rights Campaign described it as “both frightening and embarrassing that one of our nation’s staunchest allies has warned its citizens of the risks” of travelling to the US.

He added: “It is now more clear than ever that these terrible measures are not only harming individuals and taking an economic toll on the states, but are also causing serious damage to our nation’s reputation, and the perceived safety of LGBT people who travel here.” (Read more from “European Nations Join Transgender Jihad Against North Carolina, Mississippi Stand for Traditional Values” HERE)

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U.S. Court Rules for Virginia Student on Transgender Bathroom Access

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maxresdefault (96)(Editor’s note: the author’s pronoun usage below does not reflect the views of RL) A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday ruled for a Virginia transgender student seeking access to the bathroom of his gender identity in a case that could impact the national bathroom wars playing out between gay rights activists and social conservatives.

The ruling by the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals sent back to a lower court the widely watched case that considered whether transgender students are protected by the 1972 Title IX Act, which prohibits sex-based discrimination by schools receiving federal funding.

Student Gavin Grimm was barred from using the boys’ bathroom at his local high school in Gloucester County, Virginia. Grimm was born a female but identifies as a male.

After drawing community complaints for allowing Grimm to use the boys’ bathroom, the school district approved a policy in December 2014 requiring students to use single-stall unisex restrooms or restrooms associated with their physical sex.

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. (Read more from “U.S. Court Rules for Virginia Student on Transgender Bathroom Access” HERE)

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