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Meet The Teen Suing His School Because He Had To Share A Locker Room With A Transgender Boy

The student has allegedly stopped using changing facilities altogether because of the "ongoing risk of having his privacy violated."

A high school boy in Pennsylvania was humiliated and emotionally traumatized by being forced to share a locker room with a transgender boy, according to a lawsuit filed by a top religious conservative group.

The suit alleges that Joel Doe, the anonymous high school junior, was changing his outfit for PE last October when he noticed a transgender boy in the locker room with him.

“When he was standing in his underwear about to put his gym clothes on, he suddenly realized there was a member of the opposite sex changing with him in the locker room, who was at the time wearing nothing but shorts and a bra,” according to the complaint.

“Plaintiff has experienced embarrassment and humiliation, both in terms of being viewed and viewing a student of the opposite sex in a state of undress and because of the stigmatization and criticism he received from other students and adults."

Public bathroom

The complaint goes on to say that the student “also fears the future embarrassment of meeting students of the opposite sex in the bathroom when simply relieving himself.”

The suit concludes that by allowing the transgender student to share the same facilities, the Boyertown Area School District had violated Doe's civil rights.

“The policy harms Doe because unless he surrenders his right to bodily privacy, he can no longer use the locker room designed for use by boys,” the suit says.

The complaint was filed Tuesday by lawyers at Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian advocacy legal group. They've asked a federal judge to suspend the school policy that permits trans students to use spaces that align with their gender identities.

After seeing the transgender boy partially undressed, Doe complained to school officials that there was a "girl in the locker room," the suit says. The school principal then allegedly told him that "students who mentally identify themselves with the opposite sex could choose the locker room and bathroom to use and [that] physical sex didn't matter."

The boy reportedly felt so threatened by the idea of sharing a locker room with a trans student that he ceased changing clothes before PE all together, a choice that "resulted in disciplinary action and poor grades."

Ever since the incident, the boy "does not feel secure in the locker rooms or restrooms that are properly set aside for the exclusive use of boys," so has stopped using the bathroom during the school day because of the "ongoing risk of having his privacy violated."

The boy's suit comes as anti-trans bathroom legislation continues to move through various state legislatures, most notably in Texas where SB 6 has passed the state senate and now awaits approval by the house.

h/t: BuzzFeed

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