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News from the ACLU Lesbian & Gay Rights Project: 6/20/02
Contact: Eric Ferrero, 212-549-2568; 917-876-8879
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Federal Appeals Court Rejects School Teacher's Lawsuit
Seeking To Keep Transgender Employee from Bathrooms

MINNEAPOLIS -- A federal appeals court today said a Minneapolis public
school met its legal obligation by giving alternate restroom options to a
teacher who did not want to use the same facilities as a male-to-female
transgendered employee, in what the American Civil Liberties Union called a
"watershed victory" for the rights of transgendered people.

Southwest High School teacher Carla Cruzan complained that allowing
transgendered library employee Debra Davis to use the women's bathroom
violated Cruzan's religious freedom and created a hostile workplace based on
sex. As a result, the school provided Cruzan with ready access to several
other bathrooms, including single-person facilities and other women's
restrooms. Unsatisfied with the school's accommodation for her, Cruzan
asked a federal court to block Davis from using the women's restrooms at
school. She lost and appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th
Circuit, in St. Louis.

"This case had two common threads that we see all across the country --
someone didn't want a transgendered person to have basic access to restrooms
and then used religion as a smokescreen for blatant discrimination," said
Tamara Lange, an ACLU Lesbian & Gay Rights Project staff attorney who wrote
a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the school.

"Carla Cruzan was the person who thought there was a problem here, so the
school was right to find some other alternative for her -- not for the
transgendered employee," Lange said. "This is a watershed victory that
tells employers and businesses nationwide that they can't deny a
transgendered person basic rights based on someone's dislike for the
person."

In today's unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel of the federal appeals
court upheld the school district's restroom policy, saying, "The school
district's policy was not directed at Cruzan and Cruzan had convenient
access to a number of restrooms other than the one Davis used. Cruzan does
not assert Davis engaged in any inappropriate conduct other than merely
being present in the women's faculty restroom. Given the totality of the
circumstances, we conclude a reasonable person would not have found the work
environment hostile or abusive."

The ACLU's friend-of-the-court brief, filed earlier this year, said that
Cruzan, not the school, was unreasonable when she demanded that the school
allow her own personal beliefs to dictate Davis' use of school restrooms.
The ACLU, filing on behalf of groups including the Minnesota chapter of the
Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, also noted that students,
teachers, staff and parents at Southwest High School roundly supported Davis
and the school's handling of the situation.

"The Minneapolis Public Schools have shown a willingness to learn about and
support the needs and concerns of LGBT students, parents and staff. From
students who plastered the walls with signs supporting Debra to the Out4Good
office in the Minneapolis district itself - this community is a model for
every school in the country," said J.J. Kahle, Co-Chair of GLSEN-Minnesota.
"Debra was supported so she could continue doing her good work in the
library. While it's too bad that Carla Cruzan is intolerant, her concerns
were addressed by finding other restrooms she can use."

Minnesota is one of just two states that explicitly prohibits discrimination
based on gender identity - but that civil rights law is not at issue because
this case is about whether Cruzan was discriminated against by the school's
accommodation of a transgendered employee. The ACLU Lesbian & Gay Rights
Project is currently litigating a New York City case claiming that a
landlord violated existing sex discrimination laws by evicting a social
services agency because its transgendered clients used restrooms consistent
with their gender identities. More on that case is online at:
http://www.aclu.org/news/2001/n062601a.html.

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