Linklaters partners with Human Rights Campaign in civil rights lawsuit against anti-transgender bill

Linklaters has partnered with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation to file a federal civil rights lawsuit in the District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee against the Williamson County Board of Education, the Director of the Williamson County Schools, the Tennessee Department of Education, and the Commissioner of Education, challenging a discriminatory law that denies transgender students and others access to the multi-occupancy bathrooms, locker rooms and other facilities in public schools consistent with their gender identity.
 
In May 2021, Tennessee enacted this anti-transgender bill into law, preventing transgender students and others from using restrooms and other facilities aligning with their gender identity. Last year, Linklaters teamed up with HRC Foundation to file a similar lawsuit in Tennessee challenging the same bathroom law, but due to the plaintiffs moving out of state, that lawsuit did not proceed.

The lawsuit has been filed on behalf of an 8-year-old transgender girl entering the third grade who will be forced to either use the restroom that corresponds to her gender assigned at birth, or to otherwise use a single-occupancy bathroom as a purported “accommodation” when she returns to school this fall, instead of the restroom consistent with her gender identity.

Adam Lurie, Head of Linklaters’ U.S. Dispute Resolution practice, commented:

“We are proud to support this family alongside the Human Rights Campaign on this important pro bono project. There’s no place for this anti-LGBTQ legislation anywhere in the United States.” 

Cynthia Cheng-Wun Weaver, Human Rights Campaign Litigation Director, added:

“We should all be inspired by her strength and determination to fight for the right to be who she is. She, and all transgender and nonbinary children in Tennessee, deserve to be affirmed and encouraged to be who they are, in all aspects of their lives.”

The Linklaters team was led by partner Adam Lurie and senior associate Sean Mooney alongside associates Benjamin Kurland, Jarrett Field, Rebecca Zeldin, Lillian Childress, Zoë Lillian, and Salma Shitia, summer associates Matthew Gallot-Baker and Earl Quermorllue, and paralegals Casey Bell and Lescene Gibbons.

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is the educational arm of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) people. For years, it has partnered with legal and civil rights groups to advocate for civil rights in the courts.