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| Gavin Grimm |
The Gloucester County School Board is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review its transgender bathroom ban after rulings by lower courts that the policy is unconstitutional and had discriminated against former student Gavin Grimm, chron reports.
In 2015 Gavin Grimm began the 10th grade at his new school district in Gloucester he used the boys bathroom as any boy would. Then for no reason the Virginia School Board reversed itself and banned Gavin from the Boys bathroom.
Then in Sept. 2015 a district judge ruled against Grimm deny him his civil rights and sided with the School District. On April 2016 the The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals admonished the District Judge, sending the case back to him to which he then ruled in favor of Gavin Grimm. On October of 2016 The Supreme Court announced that it would rule on Grimms case but instead ordered a stay sending the case back to the 4th District Court appeals. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on September 2020 denied a petition by the Gloucester School Board for a full Appeals Court Hearing.
Related: June 2020 the Supreme Court Rules Civil Rights Act of 1964 Protects Transgender and Gay peopleThe Gloucester County School Board hasn't learned anything after years of court rulings protecting the civil rights of former transgender student Gavin Grimm.
The American Civil Liberties Union today responded to the Gloucester County School Board’s request to the Supreme Court to again take up Gavin Grimm’s case.
"The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit have both ruled that the school board violated Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause by prohibiting Gavin from using the same restrooms as other boys and forcing him to use separate restrooms — simply because he is transgender."
The Supreme Court was scheduled to hear Gavin’s case at an earlier stage of the litigation in 2017, but the case was sent back to the lower courts after the Trump administration withdrew the government’s support for Gavin’s claims. Since that time, three federal appeals courts have ruled that discriminatory restroom policies like the one in Gavin’s high school violate Title IX and the Constitution, and another two appeals courts have rejected claims that policies like the one Gavin seeks here — which would allow transgender students to use the restrooms — infringe on anyone else’s privacy.
As the Fourth Circuit noted in its decision ruling in favor of Gavin, the Gloucester School Board has continued to discriminate against Gavin, “while schools across Virginia and across the country were successfully implementing trans-inclusive bathroom policies, again, without incident.” It added, “It is time to move forward.”
Statement from Gavin Grimm:
“I graduated four years ago — it is upsetting and disappointing that Gloucester County continues to deny who I am. Trans students in Gloucester County schools today should have the respect and dignity that I was denied. Whether it’s using the right restroom or having transcripts that reflect who we are, we all deserve to go to a school that’s free of harassment and discrimination.”
Related:"The president's belief is that trans rights are human rights" -- Jen Psaki pic.twitter.com/8VOMcN4XoR
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 9, 2021
Supreme Court Affirms Trans student Rights to Public Accommodations On Monday Dec. 7, 2020 the US Supreme Court declined to hear a case in which a lower court from Oregon had ruled in favor of transgender student rights.
