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U.S. supreme court unprecedentedly to hear transgender case

Xinhua, October 31, 2016 Adjust font size:

The justices of U.S. supreme court will hear the case of a high school transgender who complained the school board blocked him from using the boys' bathroom because his biological gender is a female.

This will be the first transgender case that lands the supreme court. Its result will affect the lasting controversy over the Obama administration's directive to public schools, according to local media reports on Friday.

That directive, issued in May, tells schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom and locker room consistent with their gender identity.

However, the nationwide directive faced blockade from over 20 states of the country and infuriate many parents and schools. The administration order is hardly fully enforced across the United States.

The high school senior, named Gavin Grimm, was able to use the boys' restroom at his high school for several weeks in 2014 until some parents complained to the school, the board of which afterwards required students to use either the restroom according to their biological gender or a private, single-stall restroom.

Seventeen-year-old Grimm cited the U.S. Department of Education's interpretation of Title X that bars sex discrimination in schools and sued the school board.

His complaint won the support of the 4th U.S. circuit court of appeals but the supreme court's decision to take up the case has suspended the execution of the appeal court's ruling.

Given that the supreme court will not hear the case until February and the earliest ruling won't come out until June, Grimm's hope to freely use the boys' restroom is not likely to be fulfilled before he leaves high school.

Furthermore, the decision of the supreme court's justices also pends on how many of the present eight justices will side on Grimm's claim and when a ninth justice will be elected. Endi