School transgender bathrooms appeal makes its way to U.S. Supreme Court
 |
| U.S. Supreme Court, 1998. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will
take on the issue of transgender bathrooms being forced upon the nation's
schoolchildren.
The country's highest court will hear an appeal
next year from the Gloucester County School Board in Virginia on Caitlyn Hope
Grimm's lawsuit to use the boys’ showers, toilets, and locker rooms at school.
"This is the first time that the Court
will be addressing the question of whether laws protecting against sex
discrimination in education are applicable to 'gender identity,'” Liberty
Counsel noted.
Caitlyn, a 17-year-old suffering from gender
dysphoria, began to self-identify as a boy in 2014. She has not undergone sex
"change" surgery, but she has legally changed her name to
"Gavin" and begun taking hormones to give her a deeper voice.
When Caitlyn began using the boys' restroom at
school, some parents voiced their concern. The school board decided to build
private, single-stall bathrooms for Caitlyn and anyone else wishing absolute
privacy, and to keep school common bathrooms gender separate.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
brought a lawsuit on Caitlyn's behalf, fighting for her right to use all the
school's intimate facilities for males.
On May 31, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld its
panel's initial ruling in April allowing Caitlyn to use the men's room. Since
President Obama earlier this year publicly announced that
his interpretation of Title IX anti-discrimination law includes transgender
self-identity – he weighed
in specifically on
the Caitlyn Grimm case – the panel deferred to the Obama administration.
“It is ridiculous that the Supreme Court has
to address whether a confused girl … should be treated as a boy,” Liberty
Counsel Chairman Mat Staver said in a press
release. “The school district’s responsibility is to
protect the safety of students from harmful situations."
Staver reasoned that transgenderism needs
healing, not enabling. "The federal law does not allow people to change
their gender by fantasizing they are something other than reality," he
said.
The Liberty Counsel founder said the case is
clear. "How the Supreme Court should rule is simple and obvious,"
Staver explained. "The federal law does not allow persons to subjectively
think, and therefore be treated, as the opposite of their biological sex."
However, with the political and societal tide
turning against traditional morality, Staver says that with the justices now on
the nation's highest court he fears a precedent-setting ruling against gender
sanity. "I have very little confidence in the Supreme Court to follow the
plain rule of law,” he said. “Who knows what a majority of the current justices
will do, because they often put their own personal ideology over the law.”
It is expected that the Supreme Court ruling
next year will have direct impact on community bathroom laws, such as North
Carolina's HB2, which keeps public bathrooms gender separate.
There are currently only eight justices on the
Supreme Court, and with Republicans disallowing hearings on Obama’s nominees,
either pro-transgender Hillary Clinton or pro-life Donald Trump will nominate
someone to fill the vacancy.
There are also three justices currently
considering retirement. The Daily
Signalconcludes, “With three of the surviving
Supreme Court justices in or near their 80s, successors named by the next
president could shift the ideological makeup of the nation’s highest court.”
Many observers say the makeup of the Supreme
Court is the most important issue this presidential election. Clinton has
promised to appoint pro-abortion, pro-same-sex “marriage,” and pro-transgender
justices; Trump has promised to appoint pro-life, conservative justices who
will interpret the Constitution, not rule by judicial fiat
