On Monday, trans kids got another court victory.
From NBC Out:
A federal appeals court on Monday ruled that a group of parents could not challenge a Maryland school district’s policy against telling parents if their children identify as transgender or gender nonconforming.
A 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled 2-1 that three parents in Montgomery County, Maryland, lacked standing to challenge the policy because they had not alleged their children were transgender in the first place. The policy, which the Montgomery County Board of Education adopted for the 2020-2021 school year, permitted schools to develop gender support plans for students to ensure they “feel comfortable expressing their gender identity.”
The policy directs school personnel to help transgender and gender-nonconforming students create a plan that addresses their preferred pronouns, names and bathrooms, and bars staff from informing parents of those plans without a student’s consent. Lawsuits are pending challenging similar policies in other states.
The Maryland case was the first to be argued before a federal appeals court. Three parents backed by the National Legal Foundation, a Christian conservative group, argued the parental notification policy infringed their due process rights under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment to direct the care of their children. But U.S. Circuit Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum said the parents lacked standing to pursue their “compelling arguments” because they had not alleged their children had gender support plans or were transgender. That rendered their opposition a mere “policy disagreement,” he said.
This marks - by my count - the fourth court victory for trans kids in August. Earlier this month, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against an Ohio school district's gender-inclusive bathroom policy. In addition, courts in Indiana and Ohio awarded victories to trans kids in cases involving anti-bullying policies and bathroom usage.
