A federal appeals court on Thursday
ruled in favor of transgender students.
A three-judge panel of the Third
Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Pennsylvania school district's
policy allowing transgender students to use the bathroom of their
choice.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a
Christian conservative group opposed to LGBT rights, challenged the
policy. ADF filed its suit on behalf of an anonymous group of
students and parents.
The court ruled unanimously in
upholding Boyertown Area School District's bathroom policy.
“We agree Plaintiffs have not
demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits and that they have
not established that they will be irreparably harmed if their Motion
to Enjoin the Boyertown School District's policy is denied,” the
court said in an order issued after it heard oral arguments. “A
formal Opinion will follow.”
The American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) intervened in the case on behalf of the Pennsylvania Youth
Congress, a coalition of LGBT youth organizations.
“The court saw that treating
transgender students equally does not harm any other students in the
school,” Ria Tabacco Mar, staff attorney with the ACLU LGBT &
HIV Project, said in a statement.
The ruling is the second this week from
a federal court involving the rights of transgender students.
(Related: Federal
judge declines to dismiss transgender teen Gavin Grimm's Title IX
case.)