On Wednesday in Minnesota, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion to intervene in a case that was filed in an attempt to ban a transgender student from using the locker room matching her gender identity. A student from Virginia High School in Virginia, Minnesota is being targeted by other students’ parents in an attempt to bar her from using the girls’ locker room.
The parents’ lawsuit was brought against the school district and the U.S. Department of Education in September of this year. The parents took legal action as represented by an organization called Privacy Matters. The American Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota seek to get involved, arguing that the requested ban is in direct violation with the U.S. Constitution and Title IX’s prohibition of sex discrimination.
The student is active in numerous sports at her high school, including volleyball and basketball, and has been using locker rooms and bathrooms that align with her gender identity. She transitioned in the eighth grade and her family reports that she just wants to live a normal life and be accepted as who she is.
According the motion filed by the ACLU, the parents contesting the student’s usage of the girls’ locker room, “publicly singled Jane out from the rest of the team and used misleading innuendo and salacious phrasing… depicting the ordinary behavior of a teenage girl as threatening or scandalous just because she is transgender.”
This is not an isolated case, as similar lawsuits are taking place across the country regarding transgender individual’s right to use facilities that align with their gender identity. Numerous states, including Texas, Maryland and Wisconsin, are contesting the Obama administration’s guidelines, issued in May, that extended protections under Title IX to transgender students in the public school system.
