The anti-LGBT legal group Alliance Defending Freedom filed suit Wednesday on behalf of dozens of families to block a Chicago school district from allowing a female transgender student to use designated areas within the girls’ locker room. Reuters reports:
Fifty-one families in the Palatine, Illinois, area sued the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Justice Department and Township High School District 211 for agreeing last December to provide a changing area in the girls’ locker room for transgender students. The lawsuit seeks an injunction to prevent enforcement of that agreement.
That deal stemmed from a complaint filed in 2013 by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois on behalf of a transgender student who was born male and identifies as female.
The compromise between District 211 and the Department of Education (DOE) was forged after nearly three years of turmoil over the matter. District 211 is one of three agreements negotiated by the DOE related to transgender student rights, including Downey Unified and Arcadia Unified. The other applicable case here was last month’s Fourth Circuit Appeals Court ruling siding with a male transgender student.
Wednesday’s lawsuit, representing 73 parents and 63 students, contends the Education Department is unlawfully redefining terms of the Title IX Act, a federal statute that prohibits sex-based discrimination by schools receiving federal funding. The plaintiffs also said the federal agency is forcing its political will on school districts.
“Every day of the school year a certain number of girls have to share the locker room space with a biological male and it makes them incredibly uncomfortable, stressed and anxious about the things going on in their school day,” Jeremy Tedesco, an attorney for the families, said at a news conference in U.S. District Court in Chicago. […]
Edwin Yohnka, a spokesman for ACLU of Illinois, in an email called Wednesday’s lawsuit “a sad development by groups opposed to fair and humane treatment of all students.”
Chicago public schools announced Tuesday that transgender students will be allowed to use restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity.