In a decision that could have far-reaching consequences for the debate
over gender identity and public restrooms, a federal appeals court ruled
April 19 that a Virginia school district discriminated against a
student by requiring the use of a girls-only or private restroom.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in
favor of Gavin Grimm, a high-school student who is biologically female
but identifies as a male. Gavin, the student’s legal name, has started
hormone therapy but has not undergone sex reassignment surgery.
Gavin sued the Gloucester County School Board over its policy requiring
students to use the restrooms that correspond to their biological sex.
The board set the policy in 2014 after Gavin’s use of the boys’ restroom
became public knowledge and parents expressed their concerns about
students’ privacy. A lower court ruled the school’s provision of private
restrooms for transgender students was a reasonable accommodation of
their needs, but the appellate court disagreed.
“As a result of the board’s restroom policy, [the student] experiences
daily psychological harm that puts him at risk for long-term
psychological harm, and his avoidance of the restroom as a result of the
board’s policy puts him at risk for developing a urinary tract
infection as he has repeatedly in the past,” Senior Judge Andre Davis
wrote in a concurring opinion.
The 4th Circuit includes Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, South
Carolina, and North Carolina, where a political battle has raged in
recent weeks over a law called HB2 that protects public establishments
from being forced to allow biological males and females to have access
to restrooms and locker rooms of the gender with which they identify.
LGBT advocates have challenged HB2 as discriminatory in federal court,
and today’s decision could set a precedent for that case—at least as it
relates to restroom use in public schools.
The ruling also strengthens the arguments of transgender students who
file Title IX discrimination claims against school districts over
restroom use. The U.S. Department of Education ruled in 2014 that Title
IX, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational
institutions, also applies to cases of gender identity.
The department has so far left the practical implications of that
ruling ambiguous and dealt with school districts on a case-by-case
basis. But the 4th Circuit’s opinion interpreted Title IX in such a way
that anything less than allowing students to use the restroom of the
gender with which they identify could be considered discriminatory.
Though the court did not negate the need for single-sex restrooms in
public schools, it said that a student’s sex can be defined as his or
her gender identity.
In a dissent, Judge Paul Niemeyer noted the court’s audacity in
redefining “sex” to mean gender identity: “This unprecedented holding
overrules custom, culture, and the very demands inherent in human nature
for privacy and safety, which the separation of such facilities is
designed to protect. More particularly, it also misconstrues the clear
language of Title IX and its regulations. And finally, it reaches an
unworkable and illogical result.”
Courtesy: WORLD News Service
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