Atlanta, Georgia — December 27, 2018. The Center for Religious Expression (CRE), along with co-counsel, filed an amicus curiae brief asking the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to protect student privacy from a radical sexual agenda.
The St. Johns County School District maintains separate bathrooms and other privacy facilities based on students’ biological gender. But the district is now facing a lawsuit insisting that distinguishing between biological genders – as opposed to perceived gender – is discriminatory. The lawsuit argues that schools are obliged to adopt bathroom policies that reinforce the gender dysphoria that a handful of students experience.
CRE represents Walt Heyer, a former transgender who personally knows the harm inflicted by attempting to reinforce gender confusion. His amicus brief recounts his personal history living as a woman for several years, pointing out that while the transition temporarily felt pleasant, his confusion soon re-emerged, along with depression. And, his transition to becoming a female delayed and complicated his diagnosis and treatment for a co-existing dissociative disorder caused by trauma he suffered as a child. Heyer explains that using a school’s sex-segregated bathrooms as a tool for affirming perceived gender leads students down the same harmful path he experienced.
“By allowing students to use bathrooms that correspond with their perceived gender, schools are actually harming the students they claim to be helping,” said CRE Chief Counsel Nate Kellum. “And, other students are losing their fundamental right to privacy in the process. Perception is not reality.”
Center for Religious Expression is a servant-oriented, non-profit 501(c)(3) Christian legal organization dedicated to the glory of God and the religious freedom of His people. For more information, visit http://www.crelaw.org.
