Federal ruling: Transgender students can't be excluded from locker rooms

CHICAGO, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Transgender students who identify with the opposite sex must be allowed to use locker rooms of that gender without restrictions, federal education authorities concluded this week.

The Obama administration issued a report Monday that addressed the contentious issue -- following a two-year investigation into the case of a Chicago area transgender teen who was denied access to the girls' locker room.

The girl had been undergoing hormone therapy but had not yet began gender reassignment surgery. The school district barred her from using any of the three girls' locker rooms -- an act that U.S. officials say violates Title IX, which outlaws gender discrimination.

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance," the statute, enacted in 1972 as part of the Education Amendments, says.

The Education Department's Office of Civil Rights on Monday provided the ruling.

"OCR finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the [Township] District is in violation of Title IX," Education Regional Director Adele Rapport wrote in a letter to the school district, which accompanied the final report.

In prior cases, school districts have reached settlements with families of transgender students. In this case, though, the Township High School District 211 had not offered any kind of settlement -- prompting federal authorities to get involved.

The report stated that, for all intents and purposes, the student at the center of the controversy -- referred to as "Student A" in the report -- is female. Rapport noted that she became transgender during middle school, changed her name to reflect the switch, obtained a passport in that name, holds the physical appearance of a female, is undergoing hormone therapy and received a psychological diagnosis of gender dysphoria -- a condition in which a person is distressed by living with the gender they were born into.

The student's family requested that the district allow her to change privately in a girls locker room -- such as a bathroom stall. The district denied that request because, it said, there were too few stalls and too many students in the locker rooms.

Also, the OCR states, the district is not consistent in its approach to transgender students. Publicly, the district has said students should be allowed to use the locker rooms of whichever gender they identify with. But, the report said, school officials have not acted in a manner consistent with that belief.

"All students, including transgender students, are protected from sex-based discrimination," the federal report said. "The District could afford equal access to its locker rooms for all its students if it installed and maintained privacy curtains."

"Student A has not only received an unequal opportunity to benefit from the District's educational program, but has also experienced an ongoing sense of isolation and ostracism."