The American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) has elected transgender activist Gavin Grimm to its board of
directors.
Grimm tweeted the news.
“I am elated, and I will work hard to
do this position justice,” Grimm said of the one year term. “Thank
you to the ACLU and to everyone who has supported me through my
fight.”
The ACLU is representing Grimm in his
fight to overturn a Virginia school district's bathroom policy
prohibiting transgender students from using the bathroom of their
choice.
Grimm filed the federal lawsuit in 2015
when he was a sophomore at Gloucester County High School.
In March 2017, the Supreme Court, which
was scheduled to hear Grimm's case, announced it would not consider
the case and sent it back to a lower court. Grimm's case rested
heavily on guidance issued by the Department of Education in 2016,
which stated that transgender students were protected under Title IX.
The Trump administration revoked the Obama-era guidance, saying that
the issue was better left up to the states. The reversal prompted the
high court to act.
Last year, the U.S. District Court for
the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that the Gloucester County
School Board had discriminated against Grimm. The district has
appealed the ruling.
While Grimm is no longer a student at
the high school, he has said that he wants to continue fighting for
the transgender students who come after him.