The Trevor Project filed an amicus brief today with the U.S. District Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board. Gavin Grimm is a young transgender man who has been fighting in court since 2015 after his school board adopted a discriminatory bathroom policy that segregates transgender students from their peers. The amicus brief provides the Court and the public with The Trevor Project’s unique insights into the serious harms inflicted on transgender students when they are denied access to school facilities or documents consistent with their gender identity.
The Trevor Project hears regularly via our crisis intervention and suicide prevention services about how detrimental and damaging policies restricting access to bathrooms in schools are to the transgender youth we serve. For example, in the week after the Texas legislature introduced an anti-transgender “bathroom bill” in 2017, The Trevor Project experienced a dramatic spike in the number of transgender individuals calling into its support helpline and/or reaching out to its chat and messaging helplines. And The Trevor Project’s inaugural National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health released in June found that 58% of the transgender and non-binary youth surveyed reported being discouraged from using a restroom that corresponds to their gender identity.
The Trevor Project was represented in this matter by pro bono counsel from Gibson Dunn, including Howard S. Hogan, Abbey Hudson, Corey G. Singer and Keshia Afia Bonner.
