The Department of Justice has interpreted Title IX to require schools with separate restroom facilities for boys and girls to allow transgender students access to the restroom corresponding to their gender identity. Now the Department of Education has gone a step further--interpreting Title IX to require a school district to provide a transgender student access to the girls’ locker room. To protect the privacy of the other female students, Township High School District 211, located in Palatine, Illinois, proposed allowing the student access to the girls’ locker room only if she were required to shower and change clothing behind a curtain. The Department of Education found that requiring a transgender student to shower and change behind a curtain would be a violation of the transgender student’s basic civil rights.
