MARION COUNTY, Fla. — Civil rights groups are preparing to take the Marion County school district to court over its new transgender bathroom rules.
Groups sent the district a letter warning that they had just stepped in front of a "legal freight train."
The issue stems from Vanguard High School after a boy complained that a female-to-male transgender student was using the boy's bathroom.
The school board voted 4-1 in favor of students using the bathroom of the gender that matches their sex at birth. The district is offering a separate gender-neutral bathroom for transgender students.
"They're actually passing a resolution that is school board-sponsored discrimination against our transgender kids," Gina Duncan, of Equality Florida, said.
Liberty Counsel, a religious group, represented the boy who complained and offered to defend the district in court.
"This is going to be litigated in, I expect, a lot of places. It may be Marion County. It may not be," Roger Gannam, of Liberty Counsel, said.
Gannam said the issue is about privacy and safety and is a relatively new area of law. He said similar cases in the legal system have taken years to resolve, including an unrelated dispute over a gay-straight alliance at a Lake County middle school that took two years to settle.
"We think that any policy in this area should be common sense. It should protect everyone's rights, not just one side of the debate," Gannam said.
School board member Kelly King said the board realized it would likely get sued regardless of the decision.
"In a time when most school boards are working together to form policies to protect transgender students, Marion County has taken a huge step backward," Duncan said.
Both sides believe the debate occurring nationally will eventually land in the U.S. Supreme Court.
If the board is going to be represented by the Liberty Counsel, the entire board would have to vote on it. Two board members said they would vote for the group's representation.
Equality Florida is planning a town hall in Ocala on Sunday to talk with students about the next steps.
Cox Media Group
