No sex discrimination or violation of privacy rights when trans students use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity

The Third Circuit entertained and rejected a claim by cisgender students (whose gender identity corresponds to the gender assigned at birth) that their constitutional rights to privacy and their statutory rights to be free from sex discrimination were violated when trans students were allowed to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. Doe v. Boyertown Area School District,2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 16323 (3d Cir. 2018). The court found that cisgender students were not deprived of a right to privacy when they had to change clothes in view of transgender students because the presence of the transgender students in bathroom and locker rooms according with their gender identity furthered an important government interest in preventing sex discrimination. Further, the court found that it would constitute sex discrimination not to treat transgender students in accord with their gender identity so that allowing them to do so could not constitute sex discrimination against cisgender students. The school also provided alternative single-user places for students to change or use bathroom facilities and provided some protections for privacy in the locker rooms and bathrooms themselves through stalls and dividers.