Unions representing more than one million teachers told the Supreme Court on Thursday that it should a grant a transgender student in Virginia, and students like him across the country, access to school restrooms that match their gender.



Joining a fiery debate over civil rights laws and moral norms, the country’s major education unions argue the court should rule to protect transgender rights not only for students, but also to ensure that teachers aren’t required to enforce harmful policies.

“Educators are, above all, advocates and protectors of their students,” said the friend-of-the court brief supporting 17-year-old Gavin Grimm, who was banned from the boys rooms at his rural high school. “Compelling them to discriminate against and harm their students runs counter to everything about their personal and professional mission.”

The brief was filed by the National Education Association; the American Federation of Teachers; the National Association of Secondary School Principals; the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; Service Employees International Union; and the School Social Work Association of America.

In 2014, Grimm was the only transgender student at his high school when the Gloucester County School Board passed a resolution restricting single-sex facilities to people of the same “biological gender.”

The unions said Thursday that rules like those “are defended by unjustifiable fear and disdain of transgender students — fear and disdain that in turn leads to and magnifies harassment, abuse, and even violence directed at transgender students.”

That environment, they say, opens the door to missing school, dropping out, and committing suicide.