The Trump administration sued Loudoun County public schools on Monday, accusing the Virginia system of forcing its concept of “gender identity” on students without considering their religious beliefs.
The Justice Department said the policy allows people to enter “intimate” spaces of their choice regardless of their biological sex, and when students spoke out — and used “biologically accurate pronouns” to refer to a transgender student — they were suspended and ordered to submit to further disciplinary education.
“Students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, repeating a line from a famous 1960s Supreme Court case.
“Loudoun County’s decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality,” she said.
The department moved to intervene on behalf of the students, who have filed an equal protection claim under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The incident in question came when two male Christian students said they were in a locker room when a student born female but who identifies as a male came into the space and, according to the complaint, recorded audio and video.
The two students spoke out against the incident and the policy, earning the suspension.
The Washington Times has reached out to the school system for comment.
In a court filing last month, the school system said the students misunderstood the root of the discipline they faced.
The school system said the issue wasn’t speaking out against the school board’s policy but rather ongoing attempts to “sexually harass a student.”
Loudoun said its own civil rights investigation substantiated the harassment and imposed 10-day suspensions for both plaintiffs in the current lawsuit.
The lawsuit is now developing in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia. A hearing is set for Dec. 19 on Loudoun’s motion to dismiss the students’ lawsuit.
The Justice Department said Loudoun brooks no dissent from its school regulation 8040, which the feds said demands students accept the system’s version of gender identity.
Where the school system saw the comments as antagonizing the transgender student, the Justice Department characterized the comments as speaking out about the school policy.
The feds also disputed the county’s claim that the Christian students “verbally threatened” the transgender student with violence.
The Justice Department said a third student, who practices Islam, was implicated in the harassment of the transgender student, but was spared punishment when he agreed to use the transgender student’s preferred pronouns.
The two Christian students would not agree to those terms.
In its complaint the Justice Department repeatedly refers to the transgender student, who is not identified by name, as “she” or “her.”
The county refers to the same student as “he” and “him,” the person’s preferred pronouns.
