RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – A federal appeals court ruling on transgender bathroom access in public schools threatens a key provision of a North Carolina law limiting protections for the LGBT community.
The court decision has prompted swift condemnation from the state’s Republican leadership.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond sided Tuesday with a transgender teen’s arguments that a Virginia school board violated Title IX by forbidding him from using the boys’ restroom. The interpretation of the federal education law directly affects North Carolina.
The court’s ruling imperils a provision in the North Carolina law – called HB2 – that requires transgender students in public schools and universities to use bathrooms corresponding to the gender on their birth certificate, said Maxine Eichner, a University of North Carolina law professor.
“We have the writing on the wall here how that will come out,” said Eichner, an expert on sexual orientation and the law.