A federal district court on Monday
ruled in favor of three transgender students who wish to use the
bathroom of their choice.
Juliet Evancho, the sister of Jackie
Evancho, who performed at President Donald Trump's inaugural
festivities, is one of the three transgender students who challenged
their Pennsylvania school district's new policy on transgender
bathroom access. Pine-Richland High School reversed its inclusive
restroom policy in September under pressure from anti-LGBT groups.
U.S. District Judge Mark Hornak issued
a preliminary injunction in favor of the plaintiffs, who are
represented by Lambda Legal.
In his 48-page ruling, Hornak wrote
that the school district's policy violates the equal protection
clause of the U.S. Constitution.
“The Plaintiffs appear to the Court
to be young people seeking to do what young people try to do every
day – go to school, obtain an education, and interact as equals
with their peers,” he
wrote. “[T] he Plaintiffs have shown a reasonable likelihood
of success on the merits of their claim that the District's
enforcement of Resolution 2 as to their use of common school
restrooms does not afford them equal protection of the law as
guaranteed to them by the Fourteenth Amendment.”
Next month, the Supreme Court is
scheduled to hear arguments in a similar case. Transgender student
Gavin Grimm's lawyers argue that such policies violate Title IX of
the Education Amendments of 1972.
Hornak sidestepped that argument,
writing that the statute “at this moment is clouded with
uncertainly that this Court is not in a position to conclude which
party in this case has the likelihood of success on the merits of
that statutory claim.”