Kramer Levin Files SCOTUS Brief on Behalf of Mainstream Religious Leaders Supporting Gavin Grimm in Transgender Equality Case

Kramer Levin has filed an amicus brief on behalf of numerous major religious organizations and more than 1,800 individual faith leaders – including leadership of the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism, among others – supporting application of Title IX to protect transgender students in the landmark case now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The brief, filed in Gloucester County School Board v. G.G., documents the growing trend among mainstream U.S religions towards support for fair and equal treatment under the law for transgender individuals based on the common belief, shared across many faiths and increasingly cited in Supreme Court rights jurisprudence, in the fundamental dignity and worth of each individual person. Signatories to the brief support the right of respondent Gavin Grimm, a transgender boy, to use the restrooms at his public high school that are consistent with his gender identity, rather than stigmatizing separate restrooms – two fashioned from utility closets – after his local school board adopted a policy restricting restroom use on the basis of “biological gender.” The brief concludes that equal treatment for transgender individuals under Title IX is consistent with fundamental principles of both equal protection and religious freedom.

The Kramer Levin brief also responds to arguments made by certain amicus briefs supporting the school board that fair and equal treatment for transgender students would threaten religious liberty. Contrary to the suggestion that mainstream religion broadly agrees that gender identity as male or female is God-given and immutable, in fact a growing number of mainstream faiths accept and affirm the right of transgender individuals to live according to their true gender identity rather than the gender assigned at birth. While acknowledging the right of conservative Christians and others to hold different beliefs, the brief refutes the argument that requiring school personnel to treat Gavin fairly and equally somehow infringes their individual religious liberty. The brief urges the Supreme Court to reject attempts to impose religious orthodoxy through law by favoring some religiously based views over others.

The major leaders and institutions signing on to the brief include both the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church; the General Synod of the United Church of Christ; Jewish Theological Seminary; Rabbinical Assembly; Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association; Reconstructionist Rabbinical College; Religious Institute, Inc.; Unitarian Universalist Association; and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, among others. In addition, the brief has been endorsed by more than 1800 individual faith leaders from a wide range of faiths, including Muslim imams and Orthodox rabbis.

The brief echoes themes in similar briefs filed by Kramer Levin in a string of marriage equality cases starting in 2013 with United States v. Windsor, in which the Supreme Court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act, and culminating in the 2015 case of Obergefell v. Hodges, which recognized same-sex couples’ constitutional right to marry.

The newly filed brief explains that the myriad faith organizations and leaders supporting Gavin are “united in believing that the fundamental human dignity shared by all persons requires treating transgender students like [Gavin] in a manner consistent with their gender identity. Amici also believe that, in our diverse and pluralistic society, the civil rights of transgender persons must be addressed according to religiously neutral principles of equal protection under the law.”

“Our brief demonstrates that diverse representatives of mainstream religious traditions, as in mainstream America generally, increasingly embrace fair and equal treatment for our transgender neighbors like Gavin Grimm,” said Kramer Levin partner Jeffrey S. Trachtman, counsel of record on the brief. “Respect for the dignity and worth of every individual is a central value across many faiths. Our signatories believe that Gavin has the right to live his life consistent with his gender identity and reject the hurtful action of the school board in forcing him to use a stigmatizing separate restroom. Those who would impose their religious views to deny Gavin fair and equal treatment do not speak monolithically for American ‘religion,’ which as always embraces a rich diversity of views, no one of which may be allowed under our system to determine public policy.”

Kramer Levin has played a leading role in pro bono LGBT rights litigation for nearly two decades. The firm previously submitted amicus briefs in Boy Scouts v. Dale and Lawrence v. Texas, two landmark LGBT rights cases before the Supreme Court; the 2013 and 2015 marriage cases; and several intervening and subsequent Court of Appeals cases on marriage equality and LGBT rights. The firm also served as co-counsel in Hernandez v. Robles, which sought equal marriage rights under the New York constitution.