Student Files Lawsuit against Fairfax County’s ‘Dystopian’ Trans Bathroom, Pronoun Policies

Virginia’s Loudoun County and Fairfax County, two of the largest and most wealthy counties in the country, have faced numerous controversies regarding their push of LGBT ideology.

In May 2021, a teenage girl was sexually assaulted in the girls’ bathroom at Stone Bridge High School in Loudoun County by a boy wearing a skirt who identified as “gender-fluid.” After a lawsuit was filed, the trans-identifying boy moved to a different school where he sexually harassed another girl under a similar school policy that allowed him to use the girls’ bathroom.

Additionally in December 2022, two Loudoun County Public School (LCPS) officials were “indicted in Virginia on charges related to attempts to cover up two sexual assaults in a girls’ bathroom and in an empty classroom perpetrated against female students by a male student who identified as a transgender female,” The Washington Stand reported. In November 2023, Virginia school policies, as well as similar policies in other states, were met with student walkouts and protests.

But despite immense pushback, schools continue to establish policies that prioritize transgender ideology. The Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), for example, first adopted Regulation 2603 in October 2020 (which was updated in April 2022) that allows for students to use the bathroom or locker room “consistent with the student’s gender identity” and requires student’s refer to trans-identifying students “by their chosen name and pronoun, regardless of the name and gender recorded in the student’s permanent pupil record.”

But this week, America First Legal (AFL), a conservative nonprofit, filed a lawsuit against the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) on behalf of a high school senior who says the transgender bathroom and pronoun policies go against her Roman Catholic beliefs. Abiding by these regulations, the student told AFL, “forces her to lie.” As such, the lawsuit specifically emphasized the district’s discrimination “against female students on the basis of sex and religion and violated their free-speech rights under the Virginia constitution.”

AFL senior advisor Ian Prior said in a statement released Tuesday:

“Fairfax County Public Schools appears to believe that its policies and regulations can override the Virginia Constitution’s protections for religious beliefs, speech, and from government discrimination on the basis of sex and religious beliefs. It is well past time for FCPS to stop sacrificing the constitutional rights of its students so that it can implement a state-sanctioned ideology that demands compliance in speech, beliefs, and conduct.”

The lawsuit also described the regulation as “dystopian” as it “requires students to adhere to a woke agenda that denies reality.” And it concluded, “FCPS — and all schools across America — have prioritized radical gender indoctrination and government-compelled speech inside and outside the classroom, all to the detriment of America’s future generations. America First Legal will not stand for this egregious indoctrination scheme and is proud to bring FCPS to court to hold the school district accountable.”

Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies at Family Research Council, is a current resident of Fairfax County. She commented to TWS, “As a former FCPS parent and a current taxpayer, I am so grateful to this student for standing up and to America First Legal for filing this lawsuit.”

She continued, “When FCPS started down the gender identity road, many parents and residents had concerns and we voiced those concerns. But it became clear that the overwhelmingly progressive voting base in the county would not tolerate dissent from the gender worldview. The pressure for students not to complain or even ask questions about gender issues was and still is very strong.”

There have been previous lawsuits in this area, Kilgannon explained, from “teachers who didn’t want to use pronouns or who pushed back against this agenda in various ways.” And so, she asked for prayers for “this brave student and her family, that they will have peace and strength throughout this process, in addition to ultimate success.” She added, “This suit will give voice to the vast majority of students who, having known a classmate for most of their lives, are faced with calling that person by opposite sex pronouns or pretending they are the sex they are not; girls who don’t want boys in their private spaces.”

Kilgannon concluded, “Gender ideology requires too much of everyone — we all have to participate, affirm, and promote it or we will be called bullies, transphobic, or worse. Lawsuits like this one are a wonderful way to push back on this evil.”