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Appeals court hears arguments on transgender bathroom policy in Ohio school district • Ohio Capital Journal

Appeals court hears arguments on transgender bathroom policy in Ohio school district • Ohio Capital Journal

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments Tuesday in a case challenging the Tipp City School District’s sanitation policy that allows students to use the restroom that matches their gender identity.

Parents and students are suing Bethel Local School District for allowing a transgender girl to use the girls’ restroom and want the school district to ban the policy.

“Families do not understand why the school respects their beliefs less than the beliefs of the LGBTQ+ community,” according to court documents.

The ACLU Ohio Chapter joined the lawsuit in January 2023 to intervene on behalf of the transgender student and oppose the parents and students who filed the lawsuit. The case involves a transgender woman who was 14 years old at the time and a student at Bethel High School.

Doe v. Bethel was filed in federal court in November 2022, but the judge in the case The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio dismissed the case in August 2023. The plaintiffs immediately appealed to the Sixth Circuit.

In court Tuesday, former Ohio Attorney General Ben Flowers argued that the school district was prioritizing secular beliefs over religious practices.

“In particular, it treated the burdens associated with lack of access to shared toilets as worth addressing if those burdens are experienced as a result of secular beliefs about gender, but not when they result from sincerely held religious beliefs,” he argued on behalf of the plaintiffs.

Even though all students have access to single-use bathrooms at the high school, Flowers said this is not practical.

“The contested policy accommodates religious objectors by offering them the same accommodations and the same hardships that were previously found intolerable for transgender students,” he said. “(Religious students) have access to the same toilet facilities as single-user toilets, but the limited number of such toilets and the large size of religious communities mean that students hold urine, refuse to use the toilet, and suffer educational benefits.”

Court documents say a transgender student used disposable restrooms at Bethel High School before entering high school.

“Even though I initially asked to be allowed to use the toilets for one person, being limited to just a few toilets quickly became a problem,” she claims. court documents.

This resulted in the student being late for class and drawing attention to her transgender status. The student and her mother contacted the school district to inform them that she would begin using the girls’ restroom, and the district allowed her to begin using the girls’ restroom in January 2022.

“I felt safe and comfortable using the girls’ shared restroom,” according to court documents. “I would not feel safe using the boys’ shared toilet as I am not a boy and I have experienced very serious and horrific abuse and harassment.”

Taylor Knight, speaking on behalf of Bethel Schools, said this was not an issue of transgender students vs. religious students and noted that one of the plaintiffs in the case specifically stated that they were “not particularly religious” in court documents.

“The general policy is that all students in Bethel schools – regardless of religion or race – may use the restroom consistent with their gender identity,” Knight said.

Knight argued that religious students using the bathroom only have a problem if a transgender student is also in the bathroom.

“The risk is that every time she shows up at school to go to the bathroom and uses a bathroom she identifies with, it will be a problem for her and she will be worried,” Knight said. “But when it comes to religious students, I will call them a group. The only time they have a problem is when (a transgender student) is in the bathroom at the same time as them. That’s why I think the injury of both of them is different.”

No further hearings or hearings have been scheduled in the case, and both sides are now awaiting a ruling.

The Ohio House passed: Act on prohibition of using the bathroom over the summer. The restroom ban bill was woven into Senate Bill 104, which amends the College Credit Plus program, and the bill returns to the Senate for approval. The Ohio Senate will resume business on November 13.

The bill would prohibit transgender students from using bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.

Follow the OCJ reporter Megan Henry on X

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