Court overturns Va. school’s bathroom rule

Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va.

A Virginia high school discriminated against a transgender teen by forbidding him from using the boys’ restroom, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in a case that could have implications for a North Carolina law that critics say discriminates against LGBT people.

The case of Gavin Grimm has been especially closely watched since North Carolina enacted a law last month that bans transgender people from using public restrooms that correspond to their gender identity. That law also bans cities from passing anti-discrimination ordinances, a response to an ordinance recently passed in Charlotte.

In the Virginia case, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – which also covers North Carolina – ruled 2-1 to overturn the Gloucester County School Board’s policy. The court said the policy violated Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination in schools. The ruling also said a federal judge who previously rejected Grimm’s discrimination claim ignored a U.S. Department of Education rule that transgender students in public schools must be allowed to use restrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

Maxine Eichner, a University of North Carolina law professor who is an expert on sexual orientation and the law, said the ruling – the first of its kind by a federal appeals court – means the provision of North Carolina’s law pertaining to restroom use by transgender students in schools that receive federal funds also is invalid.