Even In This Climate We Are Still Winning.

In the Trump era of hate and bigotry against us we are still winning battles in court.

Federal Court: Pennsylvania School Can’t Block Transgender Student Bathroom Access
Rewire
By Jessica Mason Pieklo
February 28, 2017

The ruling blocks a decision by a suburban school district and mandates transgender students have access to bathrooms that align with their gender identity.

A federal court on Monday ruled in favor of three transgender high school students and ordered their Pennsylvania school district allow them access to restrooms aligning with their gender identity.

Attorneys from Lambda Legal in October 2016 filed a lawsuit on behalf of three students at Pine-Richland High School in suburban Pittsburgh. Attorneys filed the lawsuit after the Pine-Richland School Board voted to reverse the district’s longstanding practice of allowing students access to restrooms consistent with their gender identity. The change was in response to pressure from anti-LGBTQ groups that claimed the policy put students at risk.

These claims were advanced despite no evidence of any issues with the district’s bathroom access policy, as noted by the court in its opinion. The policy at issue in the lawsuit mandates transgender students use either single-user bathrooms or bathrooms labeled as matching their assigned sex.

The district’s change in policy violates both the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as well as Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, according to the allegations in the complaint. Attorneys for the school district deny these claims and argue the change in policy was both reasonable and consistent with Title IX.

You might recognize one of the plaintiffs in the case, Philly Voice wrote…

PITTSBURGH — A federal judge on Monday ruled that three transgender students at a Pennsylvania high school, including the sister of a singer who performed at President Donald Trump's inauguration, can use bathrooms that correspond to their stated gender identities while their lawsuit challenging the school district's policy continues.

The article goes on to say that,

Officials said at least one parent had complained on behalf of students uncomfortable with sharing restrooms with students who have different genitalia. So pending research on a formal, permanent policy, students were told to use restrooms that corresponded to their anatomical or biological sex, or one of the 10 unisex restrooms scattered throughout the school.

Ah yes, the old being uncomfortable, it was used to justify segregation… I am uncomfortable having a black man in the bathroom with young white boys. Or I am uncomfortable having a gay man in the bathroom with young white boys. Being uncomfortable is not grounds for discrimination.

Then we have,

Board members said there was concern that a student "would in essence masquerade as being transgender," using a restroom inconsistent with their assigned sex, Hornak wrote.

This is another “Ah yes” since the first gender inclusive non-discrimination law was passed in 1975 this has never happened!

It is going to be interesting to see how the Gavin Grimm’s case comes out in the Supreme Court.