The U.S. Supreme Court granted an emergency order on Wednesday blocking a mentally ill girl from using the boys’ restroom at a Virginia high school.
The 17-year-old girl named “Gavin Grimm” is at the center of a national controversy over transgender bathroom rights.
Grimm had asked a lower court to force Gloucester school officials to allow her to use the boys’ bathroom that fit her “gender identity”.
The controversy began last year when the U.S. Department of Education — under President Obama’s direction — misinterpreted the Title IX anti-discrimination law to protect the rights of transgender students to use restrooms and shower facilities that are “consistent with their gender identity.”
The law was originally created in the 1960s to prevent race and sex discrimination in schools. “Sex discrimination” refers to the only 2 sexes known to man: male and female.
In April, the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a policy that allowed Grimm to sue the school board for keeping her out of the boys’ bathroom.
But Gloucester school officials took the fight to the U.S. Supreme Court which issued the emergency ruling, in a 5-3 decision, on Wednesday.
Earlier this year, in an unusual move that threatened the privacy rights of millions of healthy school girls, Obama issued a letter mandating that all public schools allow mentally ill children to use the bathrooms that fit their gender identity.
26 states out of 50 have now filed federal lawsuits against the Obama administration.
