In a critical, first-of-its-kind ruling, Androscoggin Superior Court on May 27 affirmed that Maine's law protecting transgender persons from discrimination includes ensuring appropriate access to restrooms. While this is a preliminary ruling, it is an important first step in guaranteeing that transgender people have full protections under Maine law.
GLAD filed suit October 20, 2009, on behalf of Brianna Freeman, a transgender woman who was told by the manager of her local Denny's that she could not use the women's restroom. Denny's moved to dismiss the case, arguing that it can apply a so-called biological rule to keep transgender women from using the gender appropriate restroom.
The Court denied Denny's motion to dismiss Brianna's gender identity claim. This ruling enables us to continue the fight for justice for Brianna and to seek a final order allowing her - and other transgender people - access to the appropriate restroom, securing for transgender people the same access to public accommodations that other Mainers enjoy.
In a second important victory, a federal district court judge this week denied the government's motion to dismiss our challenge to a federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) policy prohibiting medical care for transgender inmates who enter prison without a diagnosis and treatment plan for gender identity disorder (GID).
When the case began, our client, Vanessa Adams, had been denied medically necessary transition-related care and otherwise prohibited from expressing a female gender identity. In an initial victory, Vanessa has since been allowed to begin hormone therapy and is doing better. GLAD and our co-counsel opposed the BOP's motion to dismiss the case, however, in order to ensure continued proper treatment for Vanessa and to challenge the Bureau's other denials of transition-related medical care and the unjust policy itself.
In his June 7 ruling, Judge Joseph L. Tauro rejected the BOP's argument that her claim is invalid because they started Vanessa on hormone therapy after she filed her case. Citing the BOP's initial denial of Vanessa's treatment, and the fact that BOP does not disavow the policy, the court ruled that the policy's constitutionality and BOP's practice remain in question. The court also rejected the BOP's efforts to have the case transferred to Missouri where Vanessa was, until recently, incarcerated, finding that enough significant events occurred while she was in Massachusetts to make the Massachusetts venue appropriate.
GLAD and our co-counsel - the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Florida Institutional Legal Services, and Bingham McCutchen LLP - will now move forward towards a full trial of the case in the Massachusetts federal district court.
While Brianna and Vanessa's cases are not over, these initial victories mark great strides in the fight for equal treatment - for these clients, and for all transgender citizens.
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