Catholic Girl Sues Virginia Over High School Trans Toilet Policy (Letting Trans Kids Pee)
Come on Virginia, don't hesitate.
A Catholic student is suing the Fairfax County School District in Virginia, claiming that the district’s policies protecting trans and gender nonconforming students actually violate her religious rights and the state constitution, the Washington Post reports (gift link).
The policy lets people use the bathrooms and changing room facilities that match their gender identity, and even more oppressively, the code of conduct requires that others use a student’s chosen name and pronouns, so the lawsuit claims that’s “fundamentally at odds with her religious beliefs” as a Roman Catholic, Jean d’Arc notwithstanding. We are not aware of any doctrinal rules on pronouns or letting people use the terlet they want, but we “fell” long ago and even went to the Unitarian church where they worship coffee. [Rebecca here: THERE AREN’T ANY. Not one. This girl is full of shit and I am spitting mad.]
School district spokesperson Julie Allen said the school hasn’t been served yet, so sorry, no comment on the specific allegations, but yes, the school does indeed respect and welcome all students it serves, even jocks, nerds, goat-ropers, holy rollers, bronies, shit-kickers, hoedads, furries, malchiks, devotchkas, preps, poseurs, otaku, skateboard punk rockers, deadheads, swifties, frelks, spacers, and even hoopy froods.
Allen emphasized that the district’s policy follows state and federal law, and that
Any student who has a need or desire for increased privacy in using a bathroom or locker room, regardless of the underlying reason, is provided with reasonable accommodations, including access to single user facilities.
The lawsuit is being pursued on the unnamed student’s behalf by America First Legal, Trump adviser Stephen Miller’s little fascist litigation troll farm. The lawsuit claims that the school policy is discriminatory, especially the bit where students can be disciplined for maliciously misgendering or deadnaming someone. As a Catholic, the plaintiff
does not believe that a person’s sex can be altered, and the district’s policy is unconstitutional because it forces her to either “violate her sincerely held religious beliefs” or risk getting disciplined for not using a transgender or nonbinary student’s name or pronoun. It further alleges the policy discriminates on the basis of religion by requiring the student to use her school’s single-use bathrooms to “be able to exercise her sincerely held religious beliefs.”
Again, we are completely unaware of any Catholic doctrine that states one must use a multi-stall bathroom that is free of other people’s supposed sinfulness, although it’s certainly best if the floors are mopped regularly.
Here, listen to an idiot spout a bunch of crap that has little to do with the law and much to do with the idea that other people’s gender identity harms bigots.
“Fairfax County Public Schools appears to believe that its policies and regulations can override the Virginia Constitution’s protections for religious beliefs, speech, and from government discrimination on the basis of sex and religious beliefs,” Ian Prior, a senior adviser with America First Legal, said in a statement. “It is well past time for FCPS to stop sacrificing the constitutional rights of its students so that it can implement a state-sanctioned ideology that demands compliance in speech, beliefs, and conduct.”
O the oppression. Next they’ll be wanting to use the same water fountains.
The Post notes that after Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin was elected in 2021, he overturned existing state educational guidelines for schools to let students use facilities matching their gender identities, and asking teachers to use students’ preferred names and pronouns, substituting them with a lot of rightwing crap requiring students to pee where God Told Them To on their birth certificates, and actually forbidding teachers from using students’ preferred names and pronouns, even when parents filed a written request. (Families could get a court order with a name change, but staff and teachers weren’t required to respect that if it hurt them in the religious sensitivities.)
Fairfax was among several districts that said nahh, not gonna do the Youngkin crap, and here we are with a lawsuit trying to force the district to be less humane to some students in order to protect the alleged bathroom spirituality of a kid who we hope grows up and escapes their bigoted upbringing. Jesus Christ indeed.
PREVIOUSLY. UGH.
[WaPo (gift link)]
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I actually feel terrible for this kid.
If the district's lawyers are doing their job, the deposition process this child goes through is going to be complete hell. And they never would have made the choice to be part of this lawsuit if their parents weren't complete and total fucking assholes, a fact which, I note, the child could not help.
Don't' get me wrong, I also feel horribly for the unnamed student who is obviously the target of the plaintiff's ridiculous rage. It's not like any of the kids at that school won't know exactly which student is the target of this anti-trans hatred.
Even so, this kid is a tool of evil adults, and I truly wish they'd had better in their lives.
Genuinely hoping this girl goes to college, is amazed by all the learning she missed at home, starts a punk band (and changes her name to Bobbi Soxx) and writes a tell-all about the time Stephen Miller roped her and her parents into a cruel Culture War performance.