Appeals court upholds Indiana trans students’ access to bathrooms
- Trans students sued to be able to use bathrooms matching gender identity
- Injunctions were issued by district courts last year
- Appeals court let the injunctions stand while legal process plays out
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(NewsNation) — A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of three transgender students in Indiana who sued after they were told they could not use the bathroom matching their gender identities.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a ruling Tuesday upheld lower court injunctions that blocked two school districts from denying the students access to boys’ bathrooms and locker rooms. One child sued the Martinsville School District, while two others sued the Vigo County School Corporation in Terre Haute.
“Litigation over transgender rights is occurring all over the country, and we assume that at some point the Supreme Court will step in with more guidance than it has furnished so far. Until then, we will stay the course and follow” a previous order the appeals court issued, Judge Diane Wood wrote for the court in its opinion.
In the Martinsville case, a transgender 13-year-old boy identified by his initials A.C. was barred from using the boys restroom, and was told to use the girls restroom or a unisex bathroom in the health clinic.
He didn’t want to out himself by using the girls bathroom, and the health clinic bathroom was “unsatisfactory because it was far from A.C.’s classes and stigmatized him,” the court opinion states.
The family sued, and an injunction was granted in April of last year.
In the Terre Haute case, 15-year-old twins B.E. and S.E. used boys’ bathrooms and locker rooms at North Vigo High School at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year to no complaints from students, but were “informally reprimanded” by school employees, according to the court opinion.
Likewise, the brothers were told to use the girls’ bathrooms or the unisex bathroom in the school’s health office, which was far from their classes. The boys have an unrelated colon condition that requires regular access to bathrooms, and the court documents state B.E. once had an accident because he couldn’t get to the health office in time.
The family sued, and an injunction was granted in June of last year.
The appeals court upheld the injunctions, finding that the three students are likely to succeed in their suit that claims the school policies are in violation of Title IX — which bars discrimination on the basis of sex — as well as the Fourteenth Amendment.
