Transgender Teen Granted Right to Use Men’s Room

On Tuesday, May 30, a federal appeals court granted bathroom use rights to a transgender teen in Wisconsin who challenged his school’s bathroom policy.

New on Next reported that a panel of three judges representing the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a ruling that will stop Kenosha Unified School District in Wisconsin from forcing Ash Whitaker to use the woman’s rest room. Whitaker originally filed a suit last July, and the ruling was granted previously by the district court.

The decision was upheld because the judges felt that a discriminatory bathroom policy violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This is a big deal because it implies that other trans individuals could use this protection to ensure that they are granted basic rights to use the restroom or facility they feel comfortable in.

“A policy that requires an individual to use a bathroom that does not conform with his or her gender identity punishes that individual for his or her gender non‐conformance, which in turn violates Title IX,” Judge Ann Claire Williams wrote in her statement. “The School District argues that since it treats all boys and girls the same, it does not violate the Equal Protection Clause. This is untrue. Rather, the School District treats transgender students like Ash, who fail to conform to the sex‐based stereotypes associated with their assigned sex at birth, differently.”

This landmark ruling is a giant leap forward in the right direction for trans rights, as well as an exciting victory for Whitaker.