Consolidation in the health care industry has resulted in some odd situations, as shown by a federal court ruling on January 6 that a “Catholic Hospital” that appears to be owned by a state university system must comply with the anti-discrimination requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which the court concluded requires the hospital to perform hysterectomies for transgender men seeking the operation for purposes of gender transition, because it performs hysterectomies for cisgender … <Read More>
4th Circuit Court of Appeals
Virginia School Board Asks Supreme Court to Overturn Gavin Grimm’s Transgender Rights Victory
The Gloucester County (Virginia) School Board filed a petition on February 19 with the Supreme Court seeking reviewing of the lower courts’ rulings in the lawsuit originally filed by Gavin Grimm, a transgender man, when he was a student at the School Board’s high school, seeking to be allowed to use restrooms consistent with his gender identity. The School Board is appealing from an August 2020 decision by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, … <Read More>
Unanimous Federal Appeals Panel Blasts Trump Administration in HIV-Military Discharge Cases
A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, Virginia, blasted the Trump Administration on January 10 for relying on “outmoded” information that is “at odds with current science” when the Air Force moved to discharge otherwise healthy HIV-positive service members based on the spurious assertion that they were not available for deployment outside the United States. Roe v. U.S. Department of Defense, 2020 U.S. App. … <Read More>
Federal Court Dismisses Challenge to Maryland Law Against Conversion Therapy for Minors
On September 20, U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow of the federal district court in Maryland granted that state’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Liberty Counsel on behalf of a conversion therapy practitioner who was challenging the state’s recently enacted law that provides that “a mental health or child care practitioner may not engage in conversion therapy with an individual who is a minor.” The ban is enforceable through the professional licensing process … <Read More>
Federal Court Rejects Gloucester School District’s Motion to Dismiss Gavin Grimm’s Case
Opening up a new chapter in the continuing battle of Gavin Grimm to vindicate his rights as a transgender man, U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen issued an Order on May 22 denying the Gloucester County (Virginia) School Board’s motion to dismiss the latest version of the case Grimm filed back in July 2015, prior to his sophomore year at Gloucester High School.
During the summer of 2014, Grimm’s transition had progressed to the … <Read More>
Supreme Court Will Not Decide Transgender Title IX Case This Term
The Supreme Court will not decide this term whether Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and an Education Department regulation, 34 C.F.R. Section 106.33, require schools that receive federal money to allow transgender students to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity. Gloucester County School Board v. G.G., No. 16-273 (Summary Disposition, March 6, 2017). Title IX states that schools may not discriminate because of sex if they get federal money, and the … <Read More>
Supreme Court Stays Injunction against Gloucester School District in Transgender Restroom Case
On August 3 the U.S. Supreme Court granted an application by the Gloucester (Virginia) County School Board to stay a preliminary injunction that had been issued by U.S. District Judge Robert Doumar (E.D. Va.) on June 23; see 2016 WL 3581852. Gloucester County School Board v. G.G., 136 S.Ct. 2442 (No. 16A52), granting stay. The injunction ordered the school board to allow Gavin Grimm, a transgender boy, to use the boys’ restroom facilities at … <Read More>
4th Circuit Revives Transgender Teen’s Title IX Claim Against Virginia School Board
A three-judge panel of the Richmond-based U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 on April 19 that U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar erred by not deferring to the U.S. Department of Education’s interpretation of its regulations to require schools to let transgender students use restrooms consistent with their gender identity. Judge Doumar had dismissed a claim by G.G., a teenage transgender boy attending high school in Gloucester County, Virginia, that the school … <Read More>
Supreme Court Stays Virginia Marriage Ruling
The Supreme Court issued an unsigned order today staying the 4th Circuit’s mandate in Bostic v. Schaefer, the Virginia marriage equality case. The 4th Circuit panel had rejected Prince William County Clerk Michele McQuigg’s motion to stay pending Supreme Court review, and McQuigg promptly renewed her request for a stay by filing the motion with Chief Justice John Roberts. Roberts requested input from the other parties, and then referred the matter to the full Court, … <Read More>
4th Circuit Denies Motion to Stay Mandate in Marriage Ruling Beyond August 20
The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit that decided the case of Bostic v. Schaeffer, striking as unconstitutional Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage, denied a motion by one of the defendants, Prince William County Clerk Michele McQuigg, to stay its mandate beyond the short time that it had authorized in its decision. That effectively places the question whether same-sex couples can begin marrying in Virginia soon into the hands … <Read More>