- Title: Transgender student wins as U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs bathroom appeal
- Date: 28th June 2021
- Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 22, 2017) (REUTERS) MORE VARIOUS OF THE PROTESTERS AT THE SAME SCENE AS IN SHOTS 3 - 9
- Embargoed: 12th July 2021 17:25
- Keywords: Biden administration Gloucester County School Board LGBT issues Title IX Trump U.S. Supreme Court sex discrimination in education transgender rights case transgender student Gavin Grimm
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: USA
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Judicial Process/Court Cases/Court Decisions,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA004EJBHETJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday (June 28) declined to take up a major transgender rights case, leaving in place a lower court's ruling that a Virginia public school board acted unlawfully in preventing a transgender student from using a bathroom at his high school that corresponded with his gender identity.
The justices opted not to hear the Gloucester County School Board's appeal of a 2020 ruling by the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that transgender student Gavin Grimm is protected under the federal law that bars sex discrimination in education, known as Title IX, and the U.S. Constitution's requirement that people be treated equally under the law. The 4th Circuit ruling does not set a national legal precedent.
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. The Supreme Court 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."
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.
The Biden administration has reversed various Trump policies on LGBT issues.
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