A federal district judge ruled last week that Title IX and the 14th Amendment’s equal-protection clause protect transgender students from discrimination and that the lawsuit by transgender student Gavin Grimm may proceed against his former Virginia school district.
Grimm is the student who was at the forefront of the transgender-rights movement when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed in 2016 to take up an appeal by the Gloucester County district of a lower court ruling allowing him to use restrooms corresponding with his gender identity.
The Supreme Court case centered on Obama administration guidance interpreting a Title IX regulation to require schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms of their gender identity. When the Trump administration rescinded that guidance, the Supreme Court sent Grimm’s case back to the lower courts.
U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen ruled last December that Grimm could still pursue his case against the Gloucester County district even though he graduated from high school last year because his suit sought nominal damages.
