A federal appeals court has affirmed that allowing transgender students to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity is consistent with state and national law, and does not infringe on other students’ privacy.
In 2017, a group of Dallas, Oregon parents sued the Dallas School District, complaining that the district’s decision to let a trans boy use the boys’ bathroom and locker rooms violated the privacy rights of cisgender students and their parents. In 2018, that case went before Portland-based U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez, who ruled in favor of the school district’s policy. The Dallas parents, who call themselves Parents for Privacy, appealed Marco’s ruling.
On Tuesday, a three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Marco’s original ruling, writing that there is no constitutional right guaranteeing parents control over “the bathroom policies of the public schools.” LGBTQ+ legal advocates celebrated the decision.
“I’m relieved, but not surprised, that the court did the right thing,” said Gabriel Arkles, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s LGBT and HIV Project, in an ACLU press release. “There is just no legal basis for what the other side wants: mandated discrimination against trans students.”
Basic Rights Oregon (BRO), an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, was an intervenor in the case, meaning it joined to argue on the Dallas School District’s behalf. The ACLU and law firm Lane Powell represented BRO in the case.
In addition to arguing that the school district’s policy violated their privacy rights, Parents for Privacy also invoked Title IX, a federal law banning discrimination based on sex in schools, in their legal case. The parents said that allowing the trans boy to use the boys’ facilities went against Title IX guidelines that call for sex-segregated bathrooms and locker rooms.
That argument didn’t hold water with the Ninth Circuit panel, comprised of judges A. Wallace Tashima, Susan P. Graber, and John B. Owens.
“The panel stated that just because Title IX authorizes sex-segregated facilities does not mean that they are required, let alone that they must be segregated based only on biological sex and cannot accommodate gender identity,” the legal summary of the opinion reads.
Joy Wilson, a parent of an 11-year-old transgender girl, said in the ACLU press release that she’s “seen the positive impact when schools are affirming places for trans kids.”
“This decision is one more message to all the trans kids out there that we see you,” Wilson said. “We hear you, and we support you.”
