A lawsuit has been filed by parents in federal court against an Ohio school district for allowing transgender students to use girls’ bathrooms.
A group of 18 parents represented by America First Legal is suing the Dayton-area Bethel Local School District for violating their religious liberty with the policy.
The lawsuit argues that bathrooms should be limited to use by people of the same biological sex “for a variety of reasons, including safety, privacy, modesty, religion and historical views of sex.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio has now asked to enter the lawsuit on behalf of the 14-year-old transgender student, even though they are not named in the case.
“The missing character in the story, the voice that was not represented in the lawsuit, was that of the transgender student who would be directly impacted by this,” said David Carey, deputy legal director at the ACLU of Ohio, according to local station WKBN.
America First Legal argues that the change in policy was done in secret and is discriminatory against Bethel’s Christian and Muslim students. The complaint said forcing Muslim students “to use intimate facilities with members of the opposite biological sex is like forcing them to eat pork.”
“The board is imposing a substantial burden on the free exercise of that faith by placing the children in intimate facilities with members of the opposite biological sex,” the complaint states. “Among other things, this directly contradicts their faith on a fundamental moral question and places their children in a situation of compromised modesty.”
The student claims that they were initially using single occupancy restrooms, but it made them late for class and allegedly a target for bullying.
“I started noticing that other students would taunt and harass me for using the ‘sissy bathroom,’” the student wrote in the ACLU’s filing. “Some of the other students would shout transphobic remarks or slurs, refuse to use my preferred pronouns, or ask inappropriate and invasive questions about my body.”
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for February 7.