Supreme Court hands victory to transgender high school student by refusing to hear appeal from Virginia board who blocked him from using boys restroom
The US Supreme Court on Monday handed victory to a transgender high school student who sued his school to be able to use the boys' bathroom.
The justices declined to take up the case involving Gavin Grimm, leaving in place a lower court's ruling that a Virginia public school board acted unlawfully by making him use the female bathroom at his high school when he was 15 because it lined up with his biological sex.
The justices opted to not hear the Gloucester County School Board's appeal of a 2020 ruling by the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Grimm is protected under the federal law that bars sex discrimination in education, known as Title IX, and the Constitution's requirement that people be treated equally under the law.
Grimm, now 22, was born female but identifies as male. He was allowed to use the boys' bathroom in 2014 for several weeks until parents complained.
In response, he was then told he could either use the girls' bathroom or a single private stall in a move the school said would respect the privacy of all students.
The Supreme Court's decision to reject the appeal represents a victory for Grimm, who sued the school board in 2015.
The justices previously took up the case in 2016, but did not issue a ruling and sent it back to lower courts.
'We won,' Grimm wrote on Twitter. 'I have nothing more to say but thank you, thank you, thank you. Honored to have been part of this victory.'
The brief court order noted that conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have taken up the case.
Transgender high school student Gavin Grimm (pictured left in 2019 and right in 2015) celebrated a victory in the Supreme Court on Monday after he sued his Virginia school board to be able to use the boy's bathroom
The justices declined to hear the case, leaving in place a lower court's ruling siding with Grimm, although a note stated that conservative Justices Samuel Alito (bottom row, far left) and Clarence Thomas (bottom row, 2nd left) would have taken up the case
President Joe Biden's administration, reversing the position taken by the government under his predecessor Donald Trump, said on June 16 that Title IX protects both gender identity and sexual orientation. The administration has not said specifically how that applies to school bathroom access.
Grimm, 16, told his parents he was transgender in April 2014.
They helped him legally change his name, and a psychologist diagnosed him with gender dysphoria, characterized by stress stemming from conflict between one's gender identity and assigned sex at birth.
He had his breasts removed and began hormone treatment to deepen his voice and give him a more masculine appearance, ABC reported.
Grimm began attending Gloucester High School in September 2014. With the school's permission, Grimm used the boys' bathroom for about seven weeks without incident.
But after complaints from parents, the county school board adopted a new policy in December 2014 that required students to use the bathroom that corresponded with their gender at birth.
Grimm was given the option of using a separate gender-neutral bathroom, but refused to do so, feeling stigmatized.
'We won,' Grimm wrote on Twitter. 'I have nothing more to say but thank you, thank you, thank you. Honored to have been part of this victory.' The brief court order noted that conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have taken up the case
The Supreme Court's decision to reject the appeal represents a victory for Grimm, who sued the school board in 2015 after officials at a local public high school refused to allow him to use the boys' restrooms
Grimm is pictured in 2017 with his parents after he graduated from high school. He filed the lawsuit over bathroom use in 2015
Judge Henry Floyd, writing for the 4th Circuit, said the school board's actions constituted 'a special kind of discrimination against a child that he will no doubt carry with him for life.' The 4th Circuit upheld a federal judge's 2019 ruling in Grimm's favor.
Grimm graduated in 2017 and has worked as an activist and educator while his case continued in the lower courts.
In its petition asking the Supreme Court to hear the case, the school board argued that its bathroom policy poses a 'pressing federal question of national importance.'
The board claimed previously that federal laws protect against discrimination based on sex, not gender identity. Because Grimm had not undergone sex-reassignment surgery and still had female genitalia, the board’s position has been that he remained anatomically a female.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented Grimm in his yearslong lawsuit against Gloucester, argued that federal law makes it clear transgender students are protected from discrimination.
Joshua Block, an attorney for ACLU, told a federal judge in July 2019 of the 'pain and discomfort' that Grimm felt from not going to the bathroom for a long time at his high school.
Block said Grimm sometimes felt like his 'bladder was going to burst' and eventually suffered a urinary tract infection.
David Corrigan, a lawyer for the school board, argued that its bathroom policy is based on a binary, 'two choices for all' view of gender — not a 'societal construct.'
Bathroom access has become a major issue in the battle over transgender rights, and Grimm's suit has been the most prominent legal case on the subject.
Grimm's case was previously set to be argued at the Supreme Court in 2017 but was taken off the schedule after Trump's administration rescinded guidance issued under his predecessor Barack Obama regarding bathroom access for transgender students.
Trump sought to roll back transgender rights in other areas, and his fellow Republicans in several states have passed laws seeking to restrict transgender girls in school sports.
The Biden administration has reversed various Trump policies on LGBT issues.
The Supreme Court issued a landmark 2020 ruling that gay and transgender people are protected under a federal law that bars sex discrimination in employment.
That ruling helped guide the 4th Circuit's decision in the Grimm case and the Biden administration's position on Title IX protections. Floyd wrote that in light of the 2020 ruling, 'we have little difficulty in holding that a bathroom policy precluding Grimm from using the boys restrooms discriminated against him.'
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