NORFOLK, Va. -- A federal judge in Virginia sided Tuesday with a transgender teenager who spent most of his high school years fighting to use the boys' bathroom in a case that stood at the center of the national fight for transgender student rights.
The judge said the School Board that passed bathroom restrictions violated the teen's constitutional rights.
Gavin Grimm, 19, sued the Gloucester County School Board after it passed a policy requiring students to use bathrooms that aligned with their "biological gender." Grimm, who was assigned the gender female at birth, told his classmates he was transgender his sophomore year and began using the boys' bathroom. When parents learned of it, they protested to the School Board, which passed the restrictions.
The decision comes as schools, lawmakers and courts wrestle with how to accommodate students whose gender identity conflicts with the sex on their birth certificate.
Grimm argued the restriction violated Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funds. The Obama administration backed him, filing briefs supporting his case. But a federal judge in 2015 denied the teen's request for a court order so he could use the boys' bathroom.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled in Grimm's favor, deferring to the Obama administration's argument that bathroom restrictions for transgender students violated Title IX. Soon after, the Education Department issued guidance directing all public schools to allow students to use bathrooms in accordance with their gender identity, even when it conflicted with the sex on their birth certificates.
The move angered conservatives and several states sued to overturn the Education Department guidance. After President Donald Trump took office, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the guidance.
Grimm's case was appealed to the Supreme Court by the School Board, and the court was set to hear it in spring 2017.
The Supreme Court sent Grimm's case back to a lower federal court after the Trump administration reversed the guidance on transgender student rights.
A Section on 05/23/2018