Northern Va. school systems declare support of transgender student in legal fight

Four Virginia school districts are backing a transgender student in his lawsuit against a county school board over a policy requiring students to use the bathroom of their “biological sex.”

The Washington Post reported Monday that Fairfax, Arlington, Falls Church and Alexandria school districts filed an amicus brief last month in support of Gavin Grimm, who was denied the right to use the men’s bathroom at his high school in Gloucester County.

{mosads}School systems in the state “must embrace the thousands of students in Virginia public schools who … identify as transgender,” the districts wrote, according to the Post.

The brief also addressed concerns raised by Republican lawmakers in the state and elsewhere against Obama-era guidance that allowed students to use school bathrooms and other facilities that correspond to their gender identities. The guidance was rescinded under the Trump administration.

“Male students, teachers, and parents have not used the policy as a ruse to improperly access female restrooms. Sex offenders have not exploited the policy to prey on children. Transgender students have not suffered greater stigma or trauma. Those fears have proved entirely unfounded,” the brief states, according to the Post.

Grimm, who is now 19 and attending college, is continuing the lawsuit while studying to be a teacher himself, according to the newspaper. The suit was originally filed in 2014 under the Obama administration, and was scheduled to be heard until Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos reversed the Obama-era policy with which the Gloucester County policy conflicted.

His lawsuit is supported by civil rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, which has argued that the school board violated Grimm’s rights under Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause.