Case 3:17-cv-00739-TJC-JBT Document 192 Filed 07/26/18 Page 17 of 70 PageID 10695
Def. Ex. 33 at 1. The document further states that “[t]here is no specific federal or Florida state law that requires schools to allow a transgender student access to the restroom corresponding to their consistently asserted transgender identity.” Id.
In formulating their recommendations for the Best Practices Guidelines, the LBGTQ task force was aware that some other school districts, including in Florida, have adopted policies permitting transgender students to use the restrooms consistent with their gender identity. Doc. 161 at Tr. 215–16. However, the task force did not recommend that alternative for the St. Johns County School District due at least in part to concerns about how to handle gender-fluid students (those whose gender changes between male and female) or those pretending to be gender-fluid, although the task force had not heard of any such incidents.[1] Id. at Tr. 215–17.
- ↑ There is not a scientific or medical definition of “gender-fluid” in the record. The Broward County Public Schools support guide for LGBTQ issues references gender fluidity within its definition of “genderqueer,” saying individuals who are genderqueer “typically reject notions of static categories of gender and embrace a fluidity of gender identity and often, though not always, sexual orientation.” Doc. 151, Pl. Ex. 66 at 10. The District of Columbia Public Schools defines gender fluidity as conveying “a wider, more flexible range of gender expression, with interests and behaviors that may change, even from day to day. Gender fluid children do not feel confined by restrictive boundaries of stereotypical expectations of girls or boys … . [A] child may feel they are a girl some days and a boy on others, or a combination, or possibly feel that neither term describes them accurately.” Doc. 151, Pl. Ex. 116, Pt. 2 at 25. In Doe v. Boyertown Area School District (a transgender school bathroom case discussed further below), the court defined “gender fluid” as a person who “identifies as male in some situations and female in other situations.” 276 F. Supp. 3d 324, 344 (E.D. Pa. 2017), aff’d, 890 F.3d 1124 (3d Cir. 2018) (affirming), 893 F.3d 179 (opinion). That court also cited an expert (Ohio psychiatrist Dr. Scott Leibowitz) who explained that “‘gender fluid’ is not a clinical term, but it describes kind of feeling a
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