Court says cis students can sue to avoid sharing a restroom with trans classmates

A county court in Virginia has ruled that cisgender students who don’t want to share a bathroom or locker room with their trans classmates can sue their school to avoid doing so.

The case centers around an unnamed religious cisgender girl in the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) district. The anti-LGBTQ+ law firm America First Legal is financing the student’s case.

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FCPS is one of several state school districts that has refused to comply with Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s directives to discriminate against transgender students. The governor directed schools to force trans students to use bathrooms, pronouns, and names that align with their sex assigned at birth rather than their correct gender identity.

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Defying Youngkin, FCPS Superintendent Michelle Reid said trans students must continue to be addressed by their personal pronouns and have access to restroom facilities and activities that align with their gender identity.

The cisgender Fairfax student says that not being transphobic violates her religious beliefs.

“Petitioner is a practicing Catholic who believes that God created each person as male or female, that the complementary sexes reflect the image of God, that sex cannot be altered, and that rejection of one’s biological sex is a rejection of the image of God in that person,” her lawsuit reads.

“She believes that referring to another person using pronouns that do not correspond with that person’s biological sex is harmful to that person because it is false and harmful to herself because it forces her to lie by denying her religious beliefs and scientific evidence,” it continues.

The lawsuit further states that being forced to share a restroom with an individual assigned male at birth violates the cis student’s privacy as a woman.

America First Legal (AFL) has been behind several far-right, anti-LGBTQ+ lawsuits. The AFL is backing two professors from Texas in their attempt to gain the legal right to discriminate against people on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and abortion history. AFL is considered “the long-awaited answer to the ACLU” for far-right conservatives seeking to establish religious-motivated attacks on civil rights.

Virginia made news last school year for Youngkin’s anti-trans student policies. These rules state that teachers must use a student’s legal name and the pronouns associated with their “biological sex” unless a parent submits written instructions to use a different name or pronoun. Even when parents do submit written instructions, the policies allow teachers to ignore them and continue to use the wrong names and pronouns.

The policies also require students to use bathrooms and locker rooms “that correspond to his or her sex, except to the extent that federal law otherwise requires.”

FCPS has said that Youngkin’s directives are out of compliance with federal non-discrimination policies, and rejected them, which is how the student’s lawsuit came to be.

At the time, FCPS Superintendent said, “Let me be clear that FCPS remains committed to fostering a safe, supportive, welcoming, and inclusive school environment for all students and staff, including our transgender and gender expansive students and staff. We know that students can only learn effectively when they feel safe and supported.”

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