A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of a Florida school district’s policy that separates school bathrooms by biological sex.
The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit announced its 7-4 decision Friday, ruling that the St. Johns County School Board did not discriminate against transgender students on the basis of sex or violate federal rights law. civil by requiring transgender students to use gender-neutral language. toilets or bathrooms that match your biological sex.
The court’s decision split along party lines, with seven Republican presidentially appointed justices siding with the school district and four Democratic presidentially appointed justices siding with Drew Adams, a biological woman, who sued the district in 2017 after it failed to be allowed to use the school district. boys bathroom.
A three-judge panel of the appeals court sided with Adams in 2020, but the full appeals court decided to take the case.
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Gender neutral public restroom sign. Toilet without gender and disabled.
(Istock/AndreyPopov)
Judge Barbara Lagoa wrote in the majority opinion that the school board policy furthers the important government objective of protecting student privacy in school restrooms. She said the district’s policy does not violate the law because it is based on biological sex, not gender identity.
Justice Jill Pryor wrote in a dissenting opinion that the interest to protect privacy is not absolute and must coexist with fundamental principles of equality, specifically where exclusion implies inferiority.
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Several states have banned transgender student athletes from participating in teams that align with their gender identity.
(AP Photo/Samuel Metz, File)
Two other federal appeals courts have ruled that transgender students can use bathrooms that match their identities.
Friday’s decision increases the likelihood that the US Supreme Court will take up the issue.
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A protester expresses his support for the promotion of transgender ideology in schools during a march in favor of transgender people.
(Mark Kerrison/In pictures via Getty Images)
“This is an egregious ruling that contradicts the rulings of all other circuits to consider the issue across the country,” Tara Borelli, a spokeswoman for the LGBT advocacy group Lambda Legal which helped Adams, told Fox News Digital in a statement. . “It’s also a long one. We will review and evaluate this agonizing decision over the weekend and have a fuller response next week.”
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
