Law & Courts

N.C. Law Restricts Transgender Student Restroom Access

By Evie Blad — March 29, 2016 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

North Carolina last week became the first state to set restrictions on the restrooms and locker rooms that transgender students use at public schools after lawmakers included those policies in a bill that passed in a whirlwind one-day special session.

Republican Gov. Pat McCrory acted swiftly to sign the measure—over the protests of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender advocacy groups—setting the stage for potential legal conflicts between the state’s schools and the U.S. Department of Education, which has said that public schools are required to honor transgender students’ gender identity under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

The legislation drew greater national attention for its other provisions, which nullify a local anti-discrimination ordinance set to go into effect in Charlotte, ban such measures in other cities, and require operators of all public buildings to use a person’s biological sex—defined as the sex indicated on their birth certificate—to determine which single-sex restrooms they can access.

The bill passed the state Senate 32-0 after Democrats walked out in protest. Earlier, it passed the House 82-26.

Privacy Concerns

In a statement that focused largely on the Charlotte ordinance, which was intended to protect LGBT residents from discrimination, including discrimination in which public restrooms they are allowed to use, McCrory said such policies violate the “basic expectation of privacy in the most personal of settings, a restroom or locker room.”

Lawmakers who spoke in favor of the bill said the definition of biological sex is less ambiguous than that of gender identity, and that men with bad intentions might pose as transgender women to gain access to girls’ restrooms if access isn’t limited by biological sex.

But parents, community leaders, and a transgender student told lawmakers the provision in the bill that requires school boards to adopt policies limiting access to facilities would only further stigmatize transgender students, who already struggle with high rates of dropping out of school, suicide, and depression. And the North Carolina ACLU quickly vowed to challenge the measure.

Sky Thomson, a 15-year-old transgender boy, told lawmakers that forbidding him and his peers from using the boys’ restroom “gives bullies all the more reason to pick on us.”

“Imagine yourself in my place: being a boy, walking into the ladies’ room,” he said. “It’s awkward, embarrassing, and even dangerous.”

Thomson’s mother, Deborah Thomson, said that some transgender students avoid drinking water to reduce their need to use the restroom. “On a practical level, telling schools that my son can’t use the appropriate bathroom means that my son’s education will be compromised,” she said.

The new law allows students to use single-occupancy restrooms, but LGBT student advocates have said such accommodations are stigmatizing and amount to unequal treatment.

Uncharted Territory

North Carolina’s law takes its schools into uncharted territory.

Although other states have introduced bills that would limit facilities access in schools, North Carolina’s is the first that has been signed into law. Tennessee’s legislature is currently considering such a bill. South Dakota lawmakers recently passed similar restrictions, but Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard vetoed that bill, saying it interfered with local control and did not “address any pressing issue concerning the school districts of South Dakota.” Sponsors of the South Dakota measure said they drafted it in response to “federal overreach.”

The federal Education Department has asserted in court and in civil rights guidance to schools in recentyears that Title IX’s protections for sex also extend to sexual orientation and gender identity. In November, the department’s office for civil rights found an Illinois district in violation of the law because it would not grant a transgender girl unrestricted access to the girls’ locker room. Under threat of penalties, including a possible loss of federal funding, the district hung privacy curtains in the locker room and agreed to allow the student to use it.

School law experts say the department’s interpretation of Title IX isn’t legally binding. A federal judge in Virginia rejected the interpretation last year in a transgender student’s lawsuit, and a review of that decision is pending before an appeals court.

“The department is committed to protecting the rights of transgender students under Title IX, and will continue to work diligently to ensure that all students receive equal access to educational opportunities in accordance with federal law,” Education Department spokeswoman Dorie Nolt said in a statement.

A version of this article appeared in the March 30, 2016 edition of Education Week as N.C. Law Restricts Transgender Student Restroom Access

Events

Teaching Profession K-12 Essentials Forum New Insights Into the Teaching Profession
Join this free virtual event to get exclusive insights from Education Week's State of Teaching project.
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and K-12 education jubs at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Mathematics K-12 Essentials Forum Helping Students Succeed in Math

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Law & Courts Court Again Tells Trump Admin. to Restore Laid-Off Ed. Dept. Staffers
The judge was ruling in a case that challenged staff cuts and office closures at the Education Department's office for civil rights
5 min read
Demonstrators gather to protest outside of the offices of the U.S. Department of Education in Washington on March 21, 2025 after President Trump signed an executive order to shut down the government agency.
Demonstrators gather to protest outside of the offices of the U.S. Department of Education in Washington on March 21, 2025, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order aiming to shut down the government agency. A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to restore staffers to the department's office for civil rights, which enforces anti-discrimination laws in the nation's schools.
Bryan Dozier/NurPhoto via AP
Law & Courts Supreme Court Ruling May Redefine Transgender Rights in Schools
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case about puberty blockers and hormone treatments that holds implications for transgender students.
6 min read
Nate, 14, left, and Bird, 9, right, whose parents asked not to use their last names, hold signs and transgender pride flags as supporters of transgender rights rally by the Supreme Court on Dec. 4, 2024, in Washington.
Nate, 14, left, and Bird, 9, right, whose parents asked not to use their last names, hold signs and transgender pride flags as supporters of transgender rights rally by the Supreme Court on Dec. 4, 2024, in Washington. The high court on June 18, 2025, upheld a Tennessee law banning certain gender-transition treatments for minors.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Law & Courts Supreme Court Decision Lets Students Sue Schools More Easily for Disability Bias
The justices ruled unanimously that students with disabilities need not meet a more stringent standard when suing under two federal laws.
5 min read
The Tharpe family, pictured outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 28, 2025.
The Tharpe family, pictured outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 28, 2025.
Mark Walsh/Education Week
Law & Courts Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Reinstate Ed. Dept. Layoffs
The administration asks the U.S. Supreme Court to remove an injunction blocking the layoffs of nearly 1,400 department employees
4 min read
Attorneys from the Education Department's General Counsel Office Emily Merolli, second left, and Shaw Vanze in the back, second right, are greeted by supporters after retrieving their personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025.
Attorneys from the U.S. Education Department's General Counsel Office Emily Merolli, second left, and Shaw Vanze in the back, second right, are greeted by supporters after retrieving their personal belongings from the department's headquarters in Washington on March 24, 2025. The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to undo a federal district court injunction that would reinstate some 1,400 employees laid off from the department.
Jose Luis Magana/AP