Court rules in favor of transgender student who wanted to use boys bathroom

GLOUCESTER, VA (WWBT) - A federal court ruled Tuesday in favor of Gavin Grimm, a transgender person who battled the Gloucester School Board to use the boys restroom.

The U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia denied the school board's motion to dismiss the case of Gavin Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board and ordered both parties to schedule a settlement conference within 30 days.

"I feel an incredible sense of relief," said Grimm, who graduated high school last year. "After fighting this policy since I was 15 years old, I finally have a court decision saying that what the Gloucester County School Board did to me was wrong and it was against the law."

In December 2014, the School Board barred Grimm from using the boys restrooms. The board adopted a policy requiring students to use either the restroom that corresponds with their biological gender or a private, single-stall restroom.

Grimm claimed the policy "would further alienate and stigmatize me by forcing me to use separate restrooms from all of the other students at school."

In March 2017, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case and sent it back to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In July, the 4th Circuit  Court then sent the case back to the district court.

"I was determined not to give up because I didn't want any other student to have to suffer the same experience that I had to go through," Grimm said after Tuesday's ruling.

ACLU's Virginia Executive Director Claire Guthrie Gastañaga said that the ruling "upheld what Gavin argued all along, that trans students deserve the same protections under Title IX as any other student and can't be stigmatized and ostracized just because of who they are."

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