The Gloucester
County School Board had asked the full U.S. Fourth Circuit Court
of Appeals to review the decision by a three-judge panel last
month in favor of Gavin Grimm, a student at the local high
school.
The request was denied since none of court's 15 judges asked for
a vote on the rehearing, the court said. The case has been seen
as impacting the national bathroom wars between gay rights
activists and social conservatives.
Grimm had filed suit after being barred from using the boys’
bathroom at his school. Grimm was born a female but identifies
as a male.
“Now that the Fourth Circuit’s decision is final, I hope my
school board will finally do the right thing and let me go back
to using the boys’restroom again,” Grimm said in a statement.
The April ruling sent the widely watched case back to a lower
court to re-evaluate Grimm's request for a court order. The
ruling was the first by an appeals court finding protections for
transgender students under the 1972 Title IX Act, which bars
sex-based discrimination by schools receiving federal funding.
President Barack Obama's administration filed a brief in support
of Grimm.
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