'Stigmatising and humiliating': Transgender man sues Virginia school board for banning him from male bathrooms
A school in Virginia has defended banning a transgender man from using the male bathrooms.
In 2016, when he was in 12th grade, former Gloucester County School student, Gavin Grimm, underwent chest reconstruction surgery and hormone therapy, in addition to obtaining a court order and birth certificate that declared his sex is male.
Despite the court order, the school banned Mr Grimm from using the boys’ bathroom for the remainder of his time as a student there, and was found to have discriminated against him by a judge, in a hearing in 2019.
US District Judge Arenda Wright Allen, ruled last August that the board discriminated against Mr Grimm by not allowing him to use the boys’ bathroom.
“There is no question that the Board’s policy discriminates against transgender students on the basis of their gender nonconformity,” she said.
“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,” Ms Allen added.
The school has appealed Ms Allen’s ruling and are having their hearing heard by the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.
The hearing is taking place remotely, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The school’s lawyer, David Corrigan, argued that the board supported Mr Grimm by using his preferred pronouns, but said that because he had not undergone sex reassignment surgery, they felt his sex was female.
Mr Corrigan said: “Our position is it’s a binary concept, that you have males and females.”
Joshua Block, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said that the school treated Mr Grimm differently to other students, when they forced him to use a different bathroom.
Mr Block said that “they were stigmatizing and humiliating,” and added: “It’s stigmatizing to be excluded from the facilities that everyone else uses.”
Additional reporting by Associated Press.
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