Supreme Court Again Rejects Challenge to Trans-Affirming School Policies

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court today declined to hear Parents for Privacy v. William P. Barr et al, allowing school districts to continue to affirm transgender students by allowing them to use the same restrooms and locker rooms as their peers.

In 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Oregon moved to intervene on behalf of Basic Rights Oregon (BRO) in a case about transgender students’ rights. The case involved a challenge brought to the Dallas School District’s practice of permitting a boy who is transgender to use the same restrooms and locker rooms as other boys. The plaintiffs in the case claimed that merely protecting the rights of transgender students violates the rights of non-transgender students. BRO intervened to defend the school’s policy. The lower courts sided with BRO and the school. Today’s cert denial leaves the affirming policy in place. BRO has spent over 20 years advocating for legal protections for the LGBTQ community in Oregon, and has supported transgender students and families in Dallas and beyond.

Chase Strangio, deputy director for trans justice with the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project, had the following response:

“The Supreme Court has once again said that transgender youth are not a threat to other students. As we look towards state legislative sessions that will likely continue the attacks on trans youth, the decision not to take this case is an important and powerful message to trans and non-binary youth that they deserve to share space with and enjoy the benefits of school alongside their non-transgender peers. We will continue to fight in courts, in legislatures, and in our families and communities to ensure that all trans people feel safe and belong.”