Dive Brief:
- A growing coalition of attorneys nationwide filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of transgender students in the case Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board, a case filed in 2015 on behalf of Gavin Grimm, a transgender male student, against the Gloucester County School Board in Virginia.
- "Policies that stigmatize students for who they are have no place in our society or in our schools," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a press release, noting the state's "strong" anti-discrimination laws and saying "it's time some places caught up."
- Other organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, filed similar briefs in 2017 for the case, which was originally filed by the ACLU.
Dive Insight:
The U.S. Supreme Court was set to hear Grimm's case in early 2017, but it was sent back to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to be reconsidered after the Trump administration rescinded the U.S. Department of Education’s Obama-era guidance protecting transgender students’ rights under Title IX. The guidance previously allowed transgender students to access bathrooms and facilities of their choice and was used by advocates to push for policy changes.
After U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen in August ruled in favor of Grimm, who has since graduated, Virginia's Gloucester County School Board announced it once again would appeal the decision, resurfacing the possibility of the case being taken up by the Supreme Court.
This case and other pending litigation, including a case from Wisconsin's Kenosha Unified School District that was raised to the Supreme Court after an appeal from the district, make an eventual decision likely.
In the meantime, districts and states have tailored their own best practice guides, policies and protections. For example, Minnesota's School Safety Technical Assistance Council released a toolkit in 2017 serving as guidance for districts and encouraging educators to support transgender students. It recommended schools allow students to participate in all activities — including athletics, the prom and homecoming — regardless of their gender identity and to dress in alignment with their preferences.
Nationwide, many districts have tailored policies in the absence of federal guidance regulating everything from parental involvement and consent to students' rights to use facilities.
As of 2017, the National Conference of State Legislatures listed 14 states that have considered legislation restricting transgender students' rights at school, with two of those — New Jersey and Oklahoma — specifically in response to Trump's overturning of Obama-era guidance for schools. North Carolina was the only state to pass a law banning transgender individuals from using public restrooms matching their gender identity, but it has since been repealed after a federal judged ruled in favor of transgender residents.
