Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Gavin Grimm case: School board files appeal to defend its transgender policy

Gavin Grimm (WYDaily/Courtesy of Virginia ACLU)
Gavin Grimm (WYDaily/Courtesy of Virginia ACLU)

A Virginia school board has filed a federal appeal to defend its transgender bathroom ban.

The Gloucester County School Board’s appeal appeared Tuesday on the docket for the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. Briefs containing legal arguments will come next.

The board has been in a yearslong legal fight over the policy with former student Gavin Grimm, a transgender male.

A U.S. District Court judge ruled last month that the board violated Grimm’s rights. The policy required transgender students to use private restrooms or bathrooms that correspond with their biological gender. Grimm had to use girls’ restrooms or private bathrooms.

RELATED STORY: Federal judge sides with Gavin Grimm in transgender rights, bathroom ban case

The board said it was protecting students’ privacy.

Grimm’s 2015 lawsuit was once a federal test case and came to embody the debate about transgender student rights.

John Mangalonzo
John Mangalonzohttp://wydaily.com
John Mangalonzo (john@localdailymedia.com) is the managing editor of Local Voice Media’s Virginia papers – WYDaily (Williamsburg), Southside Daily (Virginia Beach) and HNNDaily (Hampton-Newport News). Before coming to Local Voice, John was the senior content editor of The Bellingham Herald, a McClatchy newspaper in Washington state. Previously, he served as city editor/content strategist for USA Today Network newsrooms in St. George and Cedar City, Utah. John started his professional journalism career shortly after graduating from Lyceum of The Philippines University in 1990. As a rookie reporter for a national newspaper in Manila that year, John was assigned to cover four of the most dangerous cities in Metro Manila. Later that year, John was transferred to cover the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines. He spent the latter part of 1990 to early 1992 embedded with troopers in the southern Philippines as they fought with communist rebels and Muslim extremists. His U.S. journalism career includes reporting and editing stints for newspapers and other media outlets in New York City, California, Texas, Iowa, Utah, Colorado and Washington state.

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