Back In Court Again

It seems like one case after another are being appealed and all of the cases are winding their way to the Supreme Court.

Appellate court considers locker room case from former Palatine High transgender student
Chicago Tribune
By Elyssa Cherney
June 26, 2018

While many high school graduates may be enjoying summer vacation or shopping for their college dorms, Nova Maday sat in an Illinois appellate courtroom on Tuesday, the center of a lawsuit that accuses her former school district of discriminating against her because she is transgender.

Maday’s case, which challenges Palatine High School and Township High School District 211 for requiring her to use a private changing station in the girl’s locker room, reached the First District Appellate justices after a state court judge denied her request to get ready for gym class with the other girls. Maday identifies as female even though she was classified as male at birth.

Attorneys for the school district and a group of concerned community members on Tuesday argued the matter is moot because Maday graduated last month. Lawyers representing Maday from the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, however, said there needs to be a ruling because the issue underlying the case is likely to arise in the schools again. A three-judge panel took the case under consideration and will issue a ruling at a later date.

So who are these “concerned community members” why no other but a group of conservative Christians according to ABC7.

District 211 has support as well, including the Chicago-based Thomas More Society, which is representing a group of parents who would rather have transgender students use a third, separate locker room. "I'm relieved and hopeful in the future that privacy will be protected for all students," said Beth Kalopisis, a parent and member of D211 Parents and Students for Privacy.

According to their website…

The Thomas More Society is a not-for-profit, national public interest law firm dedicated to restoring respect in law for life, family, and religious liberty. Based in Chicago, the Thomas More Society defends and fosters support for these causes by providing high quality pro bono legal services from local trial courts all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

And as for the idea of using a “transgender students use a third, separate locker room” has been tried before and it was called “separate-but-equal” which didn’t work then and it will not work now. The policy marginalize and demoralizes trans students just like it did for other groups of people.

“Nobody is trying force girls to undress in front of boys, or boys to undress in front of girls — that’s not what this case is about,” Maday, 18, said after the hearing, her hair streaked with pink color. “This is about equality and being treated the same as everybody else and equal access and full enjoyment of the locker rooms and restrooms.”

Nobody likes to get undressed in front of others, the old image of one big open area for a locker is going the way of the dinosaur. Even way back when I was an undergrad student in the early seventies we had our individual changing stalls with a shower, now more and more schools are doing that creating individual stalls to change and shower.

The school attorney said,

Sally Scott, an attorney representing the school district, defended the trial court ruling, saying District 211 did not violate the state’s Human Rights Act because it gave Maday access to the locker room — even if it came with conditions. Lawmakers specifically wrote the statute in a way that created different requirements for schools compared to other places of public commerce, such as hotels and shops.

While the student attorney said,

Meanwhile, ACLU attorney John Knight contested Scott’s interpretation of the statute, saying schools must first and foremost adhere to the broader tenets of the law, which posits that places of public accommodation cannot “deny or refuse to another the full and equal enjoyment” of an institution.

Now get a load of this; with all the discussions over privacy…

The case marks District 211’s second legal battle over bathroom and locker room access. In 2013, after another transgender student filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, the federal agency cited the district for violating Title IX, a law banning gender discrimination in schools.

In response to the federal violation, the district constructed the private changing stall for the student, who accepted the terms.

You got that? They already have private changing stalls for those who ask for them!

This is not about privacy, this is about bigotry.