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 The Florida high school student was barred last year from using
the boys' restroom, where he felt that he belonged, launching his
school into the bathroom wars between gay rights activists and
social conservatives.
His presence in the girls' bathroom even prompted screams.
"It was very uncomfortable for me and all of the second grade girls
in there," said Quinn at his Sarasota home, decorated with childhood
photos of a girl struggling with gender identity. "I didn't need
that happening every time I would go to the bathroom."
Bullied to the point he thought about suicide, Quinn began to
organize protests early this year and won the right to use the male
restroom in January.
Quinn is now lobbying for a policy that would give all transgender
students in Sarasota County on Florida's Gulf Coast access to the
bathroom that they identify with, fuelling the debate playing out
nationally a year after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex
marriage.
 North Carolina and Mississippi recently adopted laws seen as
discriminatory to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender interests.
Legislation focused on transgender bathroom access, as well the
rights of those with religious objections, has drawn protests in
several other states, mostly in the South.
In North Carolina, the law has prompted show cancellations by rock
star Bruce Springsteen, former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and
performance group Cirque du Soleil, and outrage among business
leaders led PayPal Holdings and Deutsche Bank to halt plans to add
jobs in the state.
Despite the pressure, advocates call the laws needed.
"There is a right to bodily privacy that we have got to protect,
particularly for a student at school," said Matt Sharp, of the
Alliance Defending Freedom, which advocates for conservative
positions on religious liberty.
To Quinn, now a high school senior, the issue carries forward the
1960s' fight to end racial segregation, which included separate
bathrooms for blacks. Earlier this month, supporters joined him
waving signs demanding transgender student rights outside school
board offices.
Inside, about a dozen residents told elected officials they feared
that more flexible polices would allow male rapists to masquerade as
females and force boys to expose their genitals to girls using the
bathroom with them.
'ENTIRELY STIGMATIZING'
Quinn's initial requests to use the boys' bathrooms were denied by
officials at Pine View School, a magnet program for intellectually
gifted students in grades two through 12.
As his voice deepened through testosterone therapy and hair sprouted
on his face, he began to use the male bathrooms anyway. His state
driver's license recognized his sex as male.
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When school administrators found out, Quinn was offered access to
single-user restrooms in the main office and media center. He
considered that option inherently unequal and tried avoiding school
bathrooms entirely, telling teachers how much class he would miss
walking across campus.
Similar objections were raised in Gloucester County, Virginia,
prompting the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday to
rule in favor of a transgender student.
The American Civil Liberties Union had sued on behalf of a
transgender male, who was restricted from using the boys' facilities
at school but offered a private, gender-neutral option.
"It is entirely stigmatizing," said ACLU staff attorney Chase
Strangio of the separate accommodations. "It also sends the clear
message that you're not a boy if you are a trans boy."
The decision marked the first time that a federal appeals court has
found transgender bathroom access to be protected under the 1972
Title IX Act, which prohibits sex-based discrimination by schools
receiving federal funding.
The court ruling reflected the position of U.S. President Barack
Obama's administration, which filed a brief supporting the student.
The impact could be felt in North Carolina, which is under the
court's jurisdiction and recently became the first state in the
nation to enact a law restricting bathroom use to an individual's
sex at birth.
"This is a major, major change in social norms,” the state's
Republican governor, Pat McCrory, told reporters of the ruling.
Quinn's Florida school district has been watching the Virginia
lawsuit, which now returns to a lower court, as officials there
consider bathroom requests by transgender students on a case-by-case
basis.
"We don’t want to blaze a trail and open ourselves up for a possible
lawsuit," Sarasota County School Board Chairwoman Shirley Brown said
at a public workshop in February. "But then, of course, by leaving
things at status quo, we might open up ourselves to a different
lawsuit.”
(Reporting by Letitia Stein; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Cynthia
Osterman)
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