The Pennsylvania School District allows some transgender students to use restrooms and premises according to their identity with prior authorization of the school.
Students and members of the educational community in the second state of the Union, appealed the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ), because a state court ruled in favor of transgender people and their right to use the spaces according to the official identity they exhibit.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld a lower court ruling in favor of a Pennsylvania school district policy that allows some transgender students to use bathtrooms that match their gender identity.
The lawsuit was a challenge to the Pennsylvania school District’s policy that permits transgender students to use bathrooms according to their gender identity.
Opponents to this measure became plaintiffs and argued that the policy violates their privacy rights and constitutes sexual harassment in violation of Title IX, a federal law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in educational institutions that receive federal funds.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs hold that “forcing a teenager to share a locker room or bathroom with a member of the opposite sex can cause embarrassment and distress”.
“The district’s policy was a drastic change from the way locker rooms and restrooms have been regulated for the entire history of public school systems,” the plaintiffs said.
According to the local press, lawyers who support the school district said the decision to allow transgender students to use facilities aligned with their gender identity is based on the district’s “belief that transgender students should have the right to use the school bathroom and locker facilities on the same basis as non-transgender students.”
They explained that the permission is not automatic, but that when a transgender student requests to use facilities that match his or her gender identity, they have “several conversations” with a guidance counselor.
The lawyers who obtained the favor of the U.S. Supreme Court, in the exercise of their defense within the explanatory statement, showed a photo of Aidan DeStefano, who graduated last year from one of the schools, and is a transgender man, to show why he does not belong in a bathroom that corresponds to the sex he was assigned at birth.
There are background guidelines during Barack Obama’s administration, when the Department of Education and Justice issued guidance to school districts and recommended that schools allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that matched their gender identity.
According to a report by CNN, President Donald Trump’s administration withdrew that guidance.
When it did so, a pending case involving a Virginia student, Gavin Grimm, was dismissed.
“This is the reversed case, brought not by a transgender student, but from students who object to sharing a bathroom with transgender individuals.” the news network said.
Translated by: José Espinoza
Noticias Newswire
