Parents sue school for “senseless and cruel” trans discrimination in Oregon school
The town of Dallas, Oregon, is home to 15,000 people.
In that number is Eliot Yoder, a 16-year-old transgender teenager who wishes to use the same facilities as his male counterparts.
Now Yoder’s parents are starting a federal lawsuit to allow their transgender son to access the locker rooms.
Yoder came out as transgender two years ago.
“What’s really troubling and what really scares me is this lawsuit,” he said.
“When a transgender student is using the facilities that match their gender identity, the only person’s privacy that is being interrupted is their own because of everyone else’s concerns about it,” he added.
“The case targets transgender youth for simply existing and seeking an education,” said Mat dos Santos, legal director for ACLU Oregon to komonews.com.
“This lawsuit is senseless and cruel but it is not a meaningful threat to the right of transgender students in Oregon.”
This case comes after a backlash when Yoder’s high school in Oregon allowed one male transgender pupil to use the male locker rooms.
Parents were said to have piled into a school board meeting to complain.
“The key to this whole thing is not just the privacy and the rights of just one student,” said the plaintiff’s lawyer.
It’s the rights of all the students and their parents and you can’t interpret federal law and state law and impose it on everyone else and say you’re accommodating everyone — because you’re not accommodating everyone,” the lawyer added.
Yoder has said he’s had trouble getting up the courage to use the boys’ bathroom and often waits to make sure it’s empty before going in, he said.
The ACLU said it would likely intervene in the Oregon case as it has done regarding transgender cases in Illinois.
