In February of 2019, Gender Justice, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, and the law firm Stinson LLP, in support of the family of a transgender boy, asserted that the Anoka-Hennepin School District violated the state Constitution’s right to equal protection and the Minnesota Human Rights Act by barring N.H., who was on the boys’ swimming team, from using the locker room that matched his identity. The school district instead forced him to use a segregated locker room away from the main boys’ locker room. That treatment led to stigma, isolation, bullying, and threats against his family.
A district court judge rejected Anoka-Hennepin’s attempt to dismiss the case, and instead forwarded it to the appeals court, which found it is unlawful to segregate a boy from his peers because he is transgender.
“The Court of Appeals made the right decision that the school district did discriminate against and harm a transgender teen. This is a big step towards equality for our transgender youth,” said Senator Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis. “No one should be made to feel like an outcast – being separated from their team, made to feel unwelcome and alone. N.H. is a boy, plain and simple. He should have been, and now will be treated with all of the rights and dignity that anyone would want and expect.”
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