The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday
refused to hear a challenge to an Oregon school district's bathroom
policy for transgender students, leaving in place a lower court's
order upholding the policy that allows transgender students to use
the bathroom of their choice.
Without explanation, the high court
rejected an appeal to the case.
Parents in the small city of Dallas,
Oregon sued over the policy in 2017, claiming that it created a
“hostile educational environment.”
“The district's directive interferes
with the parents' rights to direct the upbringing of their children,
schoolchildren's rights to bodily privacy, parents' and children's
right to free exercise of religion, and children's rights to be free
from hostile educational environments under Title IX [of the
Education Amendments of 1972],” they said in their petition.
Plaintiffs in the case, Parents for
Privacy and Parents Rights in Education, claim that such policies
violate the rights of non-transgender students.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in
San Francisco sided with the district's policy of allowing
transgender students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that they
identify with.
The American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) and the ACLU of Oregon intervened in the case on behalf of
Basic Rights Oregon, a local LGBT rights advocate.
Gabriel Arkles, senior staff attorney
at the ACLU's LGBT and HIV Project, said in a statement that the high
court “did the right thing.”
“There is just no legal basis for
what the other side wants: mandated discrimination against trans
students,” Arkles
said. “In a time when we see attacks on trans youth around the
country, from here in Oregon to Connecticut and South Dakota, it's
more important than ever to work together to defend our communities.”
The Trump administration repealed
Obama-era guidance allowing transgender students to use the bathrooms
and locker rooms of their choice.