Justice Dept. group honours transgender teen in bathroom case
WASHINGTON — A transgender teen who sued to be able to use the boys’ bathroom was honoured Wednesday by members of a Justice Department whose leadership undercut his landmark case before it could be heard by the Supreme Court.
DOJ Pride, an organization of LGBT Justice Department employees, recognized Gavin Grimm’s “outstanding contributions to the LGBT community” during a ceremony in the building’s Great Hall, where department attorneys and employees lined up to hug him and offer congratulations and thanks.
Grimm sued the board of his eastern Virginia high school for the right to use the boys’ bathroom, in a case that was destined for the Supreme Court. But the high court decided not to hear it after the Trump administration in February abandoned an Obama-era directive telling schools to allow students to use bathrooms and locker rooms of their chosen gender. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said at the time that the transgender bathroom access issue is best left for states to decide.
“Given that today’s administration is largely hostile to LGBT people and especially dangerous to LGBT youth, the gravity of receiving an award from DOJ itself, specifically the pride alliance within it, is not lost on me at all,” Grimm told The Associated Press after the ceremony, which reporters were forced to leave. “It’s beautifully symbolic of the fact that there are still people working for equality in every corner of the world, and they will continue to do so no matter what happens.”