(Illustration: Getty Images)
A federal judge has dismissed a legal challenge to Tennessee’s so-called “bathroom law,” leaving in place rules that require public schools to bar transgender students from the gendered bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice.
The decision by U.S. District Judge William Campbell keeps in effect the “Tennessee Accommodations for All Children Act,” signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee in 2021.
The law requires schools to offer “reasonable accommodation” to transgender students and school staff, but specifically excludes access to a multi-use restrooms or changing facilities.
It says students and staff must make formal requests for accommodation, such as to use a standalone restroom, and a principal must approve or deny the request in writing. And it gives parents and teachers the right to sue a school district for monetary damages if transgender students use a restroom or locker room that doesn’t conform with their gender at birth.
Critics have said the law discriminates against transgender kids and school employees, and forces individuals to out themselves to their peers.
The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy organization that served as legal counsel in the lawsuit, has not announced whether it plans to appeal the ruling, a spokesperson said Thursday.
Judge refuses to dismiss all claims by transgender child against state, Williamson County Schools
Eli Givens, a college sophomore and LGBTQ advocate with the Tennessee Equality Project, who is unconnected to the case, called the ruling “heart wrenching” and “terrifying” for trans kids and their parents.
“I had to miss out on classes frequently because I had to go to a bathroom on the other side of school,” said Givens, who came out as trans at age 11. “What do you do in a bathroom? You go in, use the restroom, wash your hands and you leave.”
Parents of a third grade transgender student in Williamson County Schools first filed the legal challenge in 2022, arguing the law violated the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution and Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded programs.
Their child, who had been living as a girl since age six, was denied access to multi-occupancy restrooms and directed to a separate and unsanitary standalone restroom at a distance from her classroom.
The insistence that she use a separate restroom “isolates her and distinguishes her from her classmates and exacerbates the stress and anxiety she experiences while trying to fit in and avoid being stigmatized on the basis of her sex and gender identity,” the lawsuit said.
Campbell had previously shot down efforts by attorneys for Williamson County Schools and state education department to dismiss the lawsuit.
In his subsequent decision, issued September 4, Campbell noted the legal landscape that has shifted since then.
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, in separate decisions, has upheld two Tennessee laws aimed at transgender children and adults, including the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, he noted. The appeals court concluded gender identity is not recognized as a protected class. Under that standard set by the appeals court, Campbell said the lawsuit required a different analysis.
“Although Plaintiff identifies as a girl, the act prohibits her from using the facilities that correspond to her gender identity, while students who identify with their biological sex at birth are permitted to use such facilities,” Campbell wrote.
“However, the act and policy do not prefer one sex over the other, bestow benefits or burdens based on sex, or apply one rule for males and another for females,” the decision said.
Federal education officials have separately taken the position that Title IX protects transgender students access to facilities that conform with their gender identity.
In a separate and ongoing legal fight, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is leading a multi-state lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education over its position.
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