Transgender teen in Virginia wins school bathroom appeal

A gender inclusive bathroom.
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A federal appeals court ruled 2-1 in favor of a Virginia transgender teenager on Tuesday, saying he can sue the Gloucester County school board for discrimination after it banned him from using the boys' bathroom.

The court said a lower court should have deferred to the U.S. Education Department's position that transgender students should be able to use bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity rather than their biological sex, and doing anything else is a Title IX violation. Gavin Grimm, a high school junior, came out to classmates as trans and started using the boys' bathroom during his sophomore year, The Washington Post reports. Several weeks later, angry parents went to the school board, which went on to pass a policy that forces trans students to use bathrooms corresponding with their "biological gender;" later, Grimm was told to use a unisex bathroom.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.