Yesterday the ACLU filed a motion to intervene on behalf of James van Kuilenburg, a transgender student in Frederick County, VA. The ACLU seeks to defend the local school board's policy in regards to transgender students and prevent members of the community from disrupting the education of trans students by eliminating their right to have their gender acknowledged with dignity.
The policy “gave me the ability to finally be myself and access all parts of my education.
The consequences of being forced to go to school while being barred from boys’ facilities would be devastating. There is an epidemic of trans students feeling unsafe, depressed, and suicidal, and a reversal of the policy would create a culture of fear and misunderstanding.
--van Kuilenburg
Yet it’s the opponents of trans equality who say they’re the aggrieved ones, claiming that their right to privacy and freedom from discrimination is infringed when a transgender individual enters single-sex spaces. In school districts across the country, including similar ongoing ACLU cases in Illinois to Pennsylvania, trans youth are under attack.
These attacks on trans rights, however, are factually and legally without merit. Experts in law enforcement and gender-based violence have concluded time and time again that discriminating against transgender people does not make anyone safer. On the contrary, excluding transgender people from public spaces consistent with their gender identity can have dire consequences for their health and wellbeing, especially for young people.
Fortunately, the courts are recognizing the frivolity of these claims. In April, we intervened in a similar case in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, to defend transgender students’ right to use public spaces and pursue education free from discrimination. In that case, the court issued an important ruling in our favor. The Boyertown court recognized that “high school students… have no constitutional right not to share restrooms and locker rooms with transgender students whose sex assigned at birth is different than theirs.” The court found Boyertown Area High School already had sufficient privacy protections for uncomfortable students and could not single out transgender students for disfavored and unlawful treatment in response to the discomfort of a small group of students.
--Shayna Medley, Skadden Fellow, ACLU