#gavin grim

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Trans rights boost on Colbert last night!

[lesbiannewsmag]

Transgender rights case at SCOTUS faces legal doctrine question

The US Supreme Court is finishing its briefing on a particular transgender rights case involving a school and a transgender high school student and this is set to open another can of worms.

The case involves a request by a Virginia school board for a review of a federal circuit ruling on a Title IX interpretation of the Department of Education that would allow a transgender student’s use of school bathrooms.

According to Alison Frankel of Reuters, conservatives want the high court’s say on the matter because: “Beneath the fight over the rights of transgender students is a legal doctrine loathed by opponents of big government.”

Transgender rights case: The facts

The transgender rights case in question involves the the Gloucester County School Board and the student, 17-year old Gavin Grim, who identifies as a boy.

Grim had sued the board for its policy that requires students to use bathrooms that match their “biological sex.” An appeals court backed him and ruled that the federal government should handle the matter.

The Department of Education then issued their guidance on Title IX– the federal law that bans sex discrimination in public schools or else risk their federal funding– that allowed transgender students to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity.

Obviously, a number of states weren’t happy with this decision and a lawsuit was filed arguing the federal government had overstepped its authority.

The case was eventually raised to the Supreme Court, where it had decided to review the matter while granting temporary permission to the school in keeping bathrooms separate.

Transgender rights case: The questions

The questions surrounding the transgender right case in the matter is two-fold.

The most obvious one is that with the Gloucester case up for consideration, the Obama administration can’t use it as justification to open school showers, bathrooms, and locker rooms.

This is especially important as other school bathroom cases are making their way through the federal courts.

Eighteen state attorney-generals– together with the Kentucky and North Carolina governors– have also filed a legal challenge against the Education Department’s ruling.

However, Frankel writes that there’s another legal question that conservatives want the high court to consider when the case is brought before them.

“Critics of the so-called administrative state see the bathroom access cases as an opportunity to overturn the Supreme Court’s 1997 decision in Auer v. Robbins, which established that courts must consider a federal agency’s interpretation of its own regulations to be controlling unless the interpretation is plainly wrong,” Frankel pointed out.

The Auer doctrine is related to the case of Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, wherein the Supreme Court in 1984 noted that courts “must defer to executive branch agencies to interpret ambiguous statutes in their sphere of enforcement.”

In this case, the Auer doctrine was cited by the appeals court in the Gloucester case when letting the Education Department’s interpret Title IX in the matter.

“The justices are scheduled to conference on the Gloucester cert petition on Oct. 14. If they take the case, a lot more than transgender students’ rights to use the bathroom of their gender identity will be at stake,” Frankel said.

Sources:

Reuters

Washington Post

Daily Signal

Courthouse News

Daily News

Transgender rights case at SCOTUS faces legal doctrine question was originally published on Lesbian News

[projectqueer]

Appeals Court To Consider Transgender Teen's Bathroom Rights

An appeals court in Virginia will today hear a transgender teen who wants to be able to use a school bathroom that corresponds with his gender identity in a case that could have national implications, according to the Washington Post.

Gavin Grim, 16, and his attorneys will go before judges on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals who will decide whether banning Gavin, who was assigned female at birth, from the boy’s bathroom constitutes sex discrimination, a violation of federal law.

According to the Post:

"This is the first time a federal court of appeals has taken up the question over whether bathroom restrictions for transgender students violates Title IX — the federal law barring discrimination based on gender in schools — and the case is being closely watched by activists on both sides of the issue. A half-dozen states have filed amicus briefs opposing Gavin."

A decision in this case could alter conditions for transgender students everywhere, allowing them to assert the rights to use a bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. Battles over bathroom use have heated up across the country, leaving many transgender students in compromising positions. In Missouri nearly 150 students staged a walkout last yearwhen Lila Perry, who is transgender tried to use the women's bathroom at her high school.

Over the years numerous lawmakers, including one in Virginia, have proposed laws seeking to limit bathroom use based upon anatomy. In Texas, Houston's anti-discrimination law known as HERO was defeated by a campaign playing upon bathroom gender policing. The campaign sought to ignite public fears over men in women's bathrooms, which is what anti-HERO activist claimed would come to pass should transgender people be allowed to use the bathrooms of their gender identity.

Gavin, who came out as transgender when he was 15, told the Washington Post that using a bathroom that corresponds with his gender identity was paramount.  “I feel humiliated and dysphoric every time I’m forced to use a separate facility,” Gavin said in a conference call Monday.

Gavin had been using a boys bathroom at Gloucester High when parents became angry and complained to the school board. A policy was passed requiring students to use the bathroom that corresponds with their "biological gender," segregating Gavin to a separate unisex facility, according to the paper.   "He said being forced to use a separate, unisex bathroom has exacerbated the anguish of being a transgender teenager. His legal fight, too, has made him the target of 'ridicule.'"

Those who support bathroom restrictions paint them as common sense.

“I think the ACLU's attempt to twist Title IX is way beyond the intent of the law,” said Mat Staver, the founder of Liberty Counsel, which is representing a Virginia woman suing a local school district for passing a law protecting LGBTQ students and staff from discrimination.

Joshua Block, the American Civil Liberties Union attorney arguing Gavin’s case, said a decision could have major implications. “It will likely be a bellwether one way or another that people will look to in the immediate future to look to see where courts are headed,” he told the paper.