US Supreme Court blocks transgender toilet ruling

Teenager Gavin Grimm identifies as male

The US Supreme Court has temporarily overturned a ruling that allowed a transgender high school student to use the bathroom of his choice.

It is the first time that the fraught discussion over transgender bathroom rights has reached the country's highest court. Judges voted 5-3 to halt a lower court's order that Gavin Grimm, 17, be allowed to use the boys' bathroom.

Gender-neutral toilets are becoming more common in some parts of the US

They will consider the case again in the autumn. Mr Grimm who was born female, filed the lawsuit after his school board in Virginia adopted a policy that required students to use a private toilet or one that corresponds to the sex listed on their birth certificate.


An appeals court ruled earlier this year that the ban was discriminatory and violated Title IX, a federal law which prohibits gender discrimination at schools that receive federal funding.

The issue has gone back and forth between several different courts which have made opposing decisions.
As the Supreme Court is yet to rule definitively on the matter, it has set things back to the way they used to be, ahead of its eight justices beginning to hear the case in autumn 2016.

Mr Grimm appealed to the court not to discuss the matter, local media report, but its actions are exactly what the school board asked for.