The Florida school district that prevented a transgender student from using a boys’ restroom wins federal appeal after a teen sued for feeling “small, nervous and scared.”
- A Florida court ruled in favor of a school district’s policy of ensuring transgender students use restrooms based on their sex
- The 7-4 yes vote from Republican-appointed judges comes after the policy was challenged by a transgender student in 2017
- Drew Adams successfully sued the St. Johns County School Board after he was prevented from using the boys’ restroom while he was in school
A Florida school district won a federal complaint upholding its policy of banning transgender students from using bathrooms that match their chosen identities after a student sued.
By a vote of 7 to 4, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the St. Johns County School Board did not violate the US Constitution or the Federal Civil Rights Act by requiring students to use bathrooms that matched their biological sex.
The policy had been challenged by Drew Adams, a transgender man who sued in 2017 after he was banned from using the boys’ restroom while attending Allen D. Nease High School in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
Instead, he had to use girls’ or gender-neutral toilets.
“This is a dissenting decision that contradicts the decisions of all other circles to consider the issue across the country,” Tara Borelli, an attorney at Lambda Legal representing Adams, said in a statement. “We will review and evaluate this dangerous decision over the weekend.”
Drew Adams successfully sued the St. Johns County school board in 2017 after he was barred from using the boys’ restroom as a student. But on Friday, a Florida court ruled in favor of a school district’s policy of ensuring transgender students use restrooms based on their sex
By a vote of 7 to 4, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the St. Johns County School Board did not violate the US Constitution or the Federal Civil Rights Act by requiring students to use bathrooms that matched their biological sex
All seven justices of the Atlanta-based Court of Appeals were majority-appointed by Republican presidents, including six by Donald Trump, while the four dissenting justices were appointed by Democrats.
Two other federal appeals courts have ruled that transgender students can use bathrooms that match their identities.
District Judge Barbara Lagoa argued that the school board has an important interest in protecting student privacy
Friday’s decision increases the likelihood that the US Supreme Court will deal with the matter.
Adams claimed that the high school’s toilet policy violated the Constitution’s equal protections clause and Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education.
Speaking to Radio 1 Newsbeat, he previously said that after being denied use of the men’s toilet at the age of 14, he felt “small, nervous and scared” and as if he had “done something wrong” for using them wanted men’s room.
District Judge Barbara Lagoa, writing for the majority, disagreed, saying the school board has an important interest in protecting student privacy and calling it “wrong” to suggest that they are based on illegal stereotypes of transgender people.
The Trump appointee also said Title IX allowed separate bathrooms based on sex, citing “the plain and ordinary meaning of ‘sex’ in 1972” when that law went into effect.
She also warned that the Adams ruling could “convert” schools’ residential facilities, locker rooms, showers and sports teams into gender-neutral spaces and activities.
Whether Title IX should be amended to equate “gender identity” and “transgender status” with “gender” should be left to Congress—not the courts.”
Adams claimed that the high school’s toilet policy violated the Constitution’s equal protections clause and Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education. He previously said he felt “small, nervous and scared” when he was denied the right to use the boy’s toilet
District Judge Jill Pryor, an appointee for Barack Obama, contradicted that by forcing him to use gender-neutral bathrooms, the St. Johns school board branded Adams with a “badge of inferiority” by labeling him “unfit” for equality protection held.
“The United States Constitution and laws promise that no one shall wear such a badge because of an unchangeable characteristic,” Pryor wrote. “The majority opinion breaks this promise.”
States are also divided on transgender bathrooms.
Twenty-two broadly Democratic-leaning states and Washington, DC backed Adams, while 18 broadly Republican-leaning states supported the school board in legal briefs, court filings show.
A divided three-person panel of the 11th Federal Court had earlier struck down the committee’s toilet policy as unconstitutional. Friday’s decision reversed that ruling.