Case 3:17-cv-00739-TJC-JBT Document 192 Filed 07/26/18 Page 45 of 70 PageID 10723
bathrooms, especially when he has to walk right past an available boys’ restroom to find one. See Doc. 160-1 at Tr. 204 (describing the walk from his class to a gender-neutral single-stall bathroom as “feel[ing] almost like a walk of shame”).
He also testified about the message it sends to other students that the school does not view him as a real boy. Using his words: “[B]ecause I’m using a special bathroom and I’m oftentimes passing a men’s bathroom, everybody knows I’m different, and I just want to fit in. So it’s the opposite of what I want.” Id. at Tr. 205. In Boyertown, the Third Circuit rejected the suggestion from cisgender students that the school should offer transgender students the opportunity to use gender-neutral single-stall facilities, finding that policy “invite[s] more scrutiny and attention” from the transgender students’ peers, “very publicly brand[ing] all transgender students with a scarlet “T” [which] they should not have to endure … as the price of attending their public school.” 893 F.3d at 192 (quoting Whitaker, 858 F.3d at 1045).[1] The Court
- ↑ Though not raised here, the court in M.A.B. rejected the argument that the use of a gender-neutral single-stall bathroom would cause cisgender students the same humiliation and embarrassment experienced by transgender students, finding, among other reasons, that requiring the transgender students to use that restroom was entirely different from providing cisgender students the option of using it if they wanted greater privacy. 286 F. Supp. 3d at 724–25. The court in Grimm adopted M.A.B.’s reasoning, finding an important difference between a boy who uses a gender-neutral single-stall bathroom because he has been singled out for differing treatment by the school because he is transgender and fails to conform to sex-based stereotypes, and a boy making a personal choice to change clothes in or use a single-stall restroom. 302 F. Supp. 3d at 752. While the St. Johns County School Board does not actually require Adams to use the gender-neutral single-stall bathrooms, in reality he is not welcome to use the girls’ restrooms (and he does not) so his use of the gender-
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