3 graduates get $20K each in transgender bathroom settlement

Juliet Evancho (left) and Elissa Ridenour were two of the three transgender students who sued their Pennsylvania school district. Lambda Legal photo.

Pittsburgh (AP) — A Pennsylvania school district paid three transgender graduates $20,000 each to settle their lawsuit challenging its restroom policy.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (http://bit.ly/2umikLU ) obtained the financial information Tuesday from the Pine-Richland School District under the state's Right-to-Know law. The plaintiffs' attorneys received $75,000.

The district last week agreed to let students use restrooms corresponding to their "consistently and uniformly asserted gender identity" in settling the suit by the three students.

Two students, Juliet Evancho and Elissa Ridenour, who identify as female and one who identifies as male, who chose not to make his name public, sued in October to overturn interim rules that required students to use restrooms corresponding to their anatomical sex. Previously, the district had allowed transgender students to use restrooms that conform to their gender identity.

The interim rules were used after some parents complained other students' privacy was violated by letting transgender students use the restrooms of their choosing.

“Legal experts said the case was closely watched all across the country when U.S. District Court Judge Mark Hornak issued a 48-page ruling in February outlining why the Pine-Richland policy was discriminatory and violated the Equal Protections Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” reported the Post-Gazette.

Information from: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, http://www.post-gazette.com. The Associated Press contributed to this story.

The Gayly – August 8, 2017 @ 3:10 p.m. CDT.