Gavin Grimm, a young man who has become a national face for transgender student rights, returns to a Virginia courtroom Tuesday to continue fighting against his former high school's transgender bathroom policy.
A federal judge in Norfolk will hear arguments over whether the Gloucester County School Board violated Grimm's rights when it banned him from using boys' bathrooms.
The hearing is the latest step in a yearslong legal battle that has come to embody the debate over transgender student rights, an issue that is far from settled in school systems across the nation. Grimm, now 20, filed his lawsuit in 2015.
U.S. District Court Judge Arenda Wright Allen is unlikely to rule from the bench Tuesday. But her eventual decision could have an impact on schools in Virginia and reverberate further if the case reaches a federal appeals court that also oversees Maryland, West Virginia and the Carolinas.
Grimm and the American Civil Liberties Union say the school board violated his rights under the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause as well as under Title IX, the federal policy that protects against gender-based discrimination.
The school board said it is protecting students' privacy and has discriminated against no one.
School systems have fallen on either side of this debate, leaving a patchwork of policies across the country.
"Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times for transgender students really can depend on where you live and who your principal is," said Harper Jean Tobin, policy director for the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Tobin said Grimm's case will likely join the "steady drum beat" of recent court rulings that have favored transgender students in states including Maryland , Pennsylvania and Wisconsin .
But Gary McCaleb, senior counsel for the conservative Christian group Alliance Defending Freedom, said the overall issue is far from resolved.
McCaleb cited a federal discrimination complaint filed by ADF in June that says a Connecticut policy on transgender athletes is unfair because it allows transgender girls to consistently win track and field events. He also said a pending U.S. Supreme Court case involving a transgender woman who was fired by a Michigan funeral home could impact school bathroom policies.
McCaleb said that "no student's right to privacy should be contingent on other students' beliefs about their gender."
Grimm had come out to his parents as a boy during his freshman year at Gloucester High School, which is about 60 miles (95 kilometers) east of Richmond and near the Chesapeake Bay.
He was initially allowed to use the boys' restroom. But after some parents complained, students were required to use the restroom that corresponds with their biological gender or a private restroom.
Grimm sued in 2015. A federal judge sided with the school board. But the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Grimm's favor. It cited a directive issued by the administration of then President Barack Obama that said students can choose bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
Grimm drew international attention when the U.S. Supreme Court scheduled a hearing for his case. But it was cancelled after the Trump Administration rescinded the Obama-era directive on bathrooms.
Grimm graduated in 2017 and moved to California, where he's worked as an activist and educator and studied at a community college. But his case has continued in the lower courts.
In February, the school board appeared to consider settling the case and proposed ending its bathroom policy. But many residents spoke out against the suggested change. The board did not take a vote on it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Israel this week briefed Biden administration officials on a plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of a potential operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah aimed at rooting out Hamas militants, according to U.S. officials familiar with the talks.
The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity to speak about the sensitive exchange, said that the plan detailed by the Israelis did not change the U.S. administration’s view that moving forward with an operation in Rafah would put too many innocent Palestinian civilians at risk.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to carry out a military operation in Rafah despite warnings from President Joe Biden and other western officials that doing so would result in more civilian deaths and worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis.
The Biden administration has said there could be consequences for Israel should it move forward with the operation without a credible plan to safeguard civilians.
“Absent such a plan, we can’t support a major military operation going into Rafah because the damage it would do is beyond what’s acceptable,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said late Friday at the Sedona Forum, an event in Arizona hosted by the McCain Institute.
Some 1.5 million Palestinians have sheltered in the southern Gaza city as the territory has been ravaged by the war that began on Oct. 7 after Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.
The United Nations humanitarian aid agency on Friday said that hundreds of thousands of people would be “at imminent risk of death” if Israel moves forward with the Rafah assault. The border city is a critical entry point for humanitarian aid and is filled with displaced Palestinians, many in densely packed tent camps.
The officials added that the evacuation plan that the Israelis briefed was not finalized and both sides agreed to keep discussing the matter.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Friday that no “comprehensive” plan for a potential Rafah operation has been revealed by the Israelis to the White House. The operation, however, has been discussed during recent calls between Biden and Netanyahu as well as during recent virtual talks with top Israeli and U.S. national security officials.
“We want to make sure that those conversations continue because it is important to protect those Palestinian lives — those innocent lives,” Jean-Pierre said.
The revelation of Israel's continued push to carry out a Rafah operation came as CIA director William Burns arrived Friday in Egypt, where negotiators are trying to seal a cease-fire accord between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas is considering the latest proposal for a cease-fire and hostage release put forward by U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators, who are looking to avert the Rafah operation.
They have publicly pressed Hamas to accept the terms of the deal that would lead to an extended cease-fire and an exchange of Israeli hostages taken captive on Oct. 7 and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Hamas has said it will send a delegation to Cairo in the coming days for further discussions on the offer, though it has not specified when.
Israel, and its allies, have sought to increase pressure on Hamas on the hostage negotiation. Signaling that Israel continues to move forward with its planning for a Rafah operation could be a tactic to nudge the militants to finalize the deal.
Netanyahu said earlier this week that Israeli forces would enter Rafah, which Israel says is Hamas’ last stronghold, regardless of whether a truce-for-hostages deal is struck. His comments appeared to be meant to appease his nationalist governing partners, and it was not clear whether they would have any bearing on any emerging deal with Hamas.
Blinken visited the region, including Israel, this week and called the latest proposal “extraordinarily generous” and said “the time to act is now.”
In Arizona on Friday, Blinken repeated remarks he made earlier this week that "the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a cease-fire is Hamas.”
The Chahine family prepares to bury two adults and five boys and girls under the age of 16 after an overnight Israeli strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Friday, May 3, 2024. An Israeli strike on the city of Rafah on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip killed several people, including children, hospital officials said Friday. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)
FILE - Palestinians line up for free food during the ongoing Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Jan. 9, 2024. A top U.N. official said Friday, May 3, 2024, that hard-hit northern Gaza was now in “full-blown famine" after more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas and severe Israeli restrictions on food deliveries to the Palestinian territory. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali, File)
Palestinians rescue a woman survived after the Israeli bombardment on a residential building of Abu Alenan family in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, early Saturday, May 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)
President Joe Biden walks across the South Lawn of the White House as he talks with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Washington, after returning from a trip to North Carolina. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
