A student in Virginia who was born a female but identifies herself as a boy has filed a lawsuit against his school district after he was no longer allowed to use the boys' restroom.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia filed the lawsuit on behalf of Gavin Grimm, 16, against the Gloucester County School Board for adopting a transgender restroom policy that required her to use a single-stall unisex bathroom but not the boys' restroom at Gloucester High School.
Grimm, an incoming junior high school student in the fall, said he just wants "to use the restroom in peace."
"Since the school board passed this policy I feel singled out and humiliated every time I need to use the restroom," he said.
Grimm was referring to the school board's policy approved last December by a 6-to-1 vote.
The policy states that "it shall be the practice of the GCPS to provide male and female restroom and locker room facilities in its schools, and the use of said facilities shall be limited to the corresponding biological genders, and students with gender identity issues shall be provided an alternative appropriate private facility."
The lawsuit alleges that the bathroom policy violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title IX of the US Education Amendments of 1972, a federal law prohibiting sex discrimination by schools.
"The school board's policy is deeply stigmatising and needlessly cruel," said Joshua Block, an attorney at the ACLU Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and HIV Project. "Any student—transgender or not—should be free to use single-stall restrooms if they want extra privacy."
Grimm suffers from gender dysphoria, "the medical diagnosis for individuals whose gender identity—their innate sense of being male or female—differs from the sex they were assigned at birth, which causes distress," the lawsuit said.
At the beginning of his sophomore year, Grimm and his mother notified the school of his male gender identity and was allowed to use the boys' restroom for two months without any incident.
However, this did not sit well with parents and residents of Gloucester County, resulting in the adoption by the school board of the bathroom policy.
Liberty Counsel—which promotes religious freedom, sanctity of life and family—has offered its free services to the school district in the case.
"A student is not free to override biology, as well as the safety, privacy, and religious concerns of others, and to demand admittance into opposite-sex restrooms and locker rooms," said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel.
"While students with gender confusion should be treated with respect, that does not include disrespecting other students by admittance into opposite-sex, private spaces."
