Doe v. Boyertown Area School District

The Boyertown Area School District (BASD) (defendant) implemented a policy (the new policy) that allowed transgender students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that corresponded with their gender identities. Permission was granted on a case-by-case basis after an evaluation by school counselors and administrators. Locker rooms and bathrooms were equipped with private stalls, and students who wanted additional privacy had access to separate single-stall facilities. A group of cisgender students (plaintiffs) sued BASD and moved to enjoin the new policy, arguing that it violated both Title IX and their constitutional right to privacy because it allowed transgender students to use sex-separated facilities that did not match the transgenders students’ biological sex. There were no allegations that transgender students had engaged in harassment or inappropriate behavior in sex-separated facilities; the cisgender students objected to the mere presence of transgender students in sex-separated facilities. BASD countered, arguing that the new policy was necessary to protect transgender students from discrimination and from the dangerous effects of gender dysphoria, which could be significantly exacerbated by excluding transgender students from using the sex-separated facilities that matched their gender identities. The district court denied the cisgender students’ motion for an injunction, holding that the cisgender students’ claims were unlikely to succeed on the merits and that the cisgender students had failed to prove they would suffer irreparable harm absent an injunction. The cisgender students appealed.