Schools Forced to Let Transgender Students Use Whichever Bathroom They Please as Supreme Court Lets Ruling Stand
The Supreme Court declined to hear a case on Monday regarding whether public schools must allow students to use the restroom that matches their gender identity.
The case involved a Glouchester County School Board’s appeal of a lower court decision that ruled its transgender bathroom ban was unconstitutional.
Former student Gavin Grimm celebrated the decision as a win for transgender rights.
Grimm was born biologically female but began to identify as male after ninth grade, according to NBC News.
“I am glad that my years-long fight to have my school see me for who I am is over,” Grimm said in a statement, according to ABC News.
“Being forced to use the nurse’s room, a private bathroom, and the girl’s room was humiliating for me, and having to go to out-of-the-way bathrooms severely interfered with my education. Trans youth deserve to use the bathroom in peace without being humiliated and stigmatized by their own school boards and elected officials,” Grimm added.
The American Civil Liberties Union celebrated the action as well.
“This is an incredible victory for Gavin and for transgender students around the country,” said Josh Block, a senior staff attorney, according to NBC News.
Grimm said during an interview on MSNBC, “We are fighting for a better future, and it’s going to be here.”
“We are fighting for a better future, and it’s going to be here.”
— @GavinGrimmVA, transgender student who sued his Virginia high school for barring him using the men’s bathroom, after SCOTUS declines to hear his case, handing a victory to him and trans students everywhere. pic.twitter.com/LbiJxyAcSK
— The Recount (@therecount) June 28, 2021
Grimm sued Gloucester County High School in 2015 after being denied use of the boys’ restroom, according to Axios.
“The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Grimm’s favor last year, finding that the school board’s policy violated the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee and Title IX — the federal law banning sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools,” according to the report.
USA Today reported that not all justices supported turning down the case, “[a]ssociate Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said they would have taken the case.”
In 2019, a federal judge in Virginia rejected a school’s policy regarding transgender students and bathroom use in a ruling celebrated as a victory for transgender students seeking access to the bathrooms of their choosing.
“There is no question that the board’s policy discriminates against transgender students on the basis of their gender nonconformity,” U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen of Norfolk wrote in her decision, Fox News reported.
“Under the policy, all students except for transgender students may use restrooms corresponding with their gender identity.”
“Transgender students are singled out, subjected to discriminatory treatment and excluded from spaces where similarly situated students are permitted to go,” Allen added.
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