Contact: J.P. Duffy or Alice Chao, Family Research Council, 866-372-6397 

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- Yesterday, Family Research Council (FRC) and the North Carolina Values Coalition (NCVC) filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Gloucester County School Board v. G.G, which will decide the validity of the Department of Education's (DOE) interpretation that sex-separated facilities under Title IX and 34 C.F.R. § 106.33 must "generally treat transgender students consistent with their gender identity." The case will also decide whether a federal agency letter mandating the same interpretation should receive deference.

The jointly filed brief makes three basic arguments: (1) education policy should be decided at the local level, (2) the DOE letter and appellate court ruling threaten the liberty of all students by invading their privacy, and (3) the DOE letter makes law when that should be left to the legislature.

This case is more broadly about whether a local school board is free to determine that students must use the shower, locker room or bathroom of their biological sex, and whether sex can be reinterpreted to include gender identity. The Obama administration has been hinting at the revocation of federal funds if localities such as Gloucester County take this course of action. While President-elect Trump could direct that such action must cease in his administration, attempts by legal activists to shoehorn "gender identity" into definitions of "sex" will persist, and FRC and NCVC hope the Court sees the sense in ruling in a way that leaves localities free from federal government mandates on this issue.

Travis Weber, an attorney with FRC who helped file the brief, commented:

"Young children in public schools all over our land are some of society's most vulnerable members, especially as they leave their families day-to-day to enter an environment in which they are supposed to be cared for and watched over. Local communities like Gloucester County should be left alone to set their own policies, and not suffer federal interference on such an issue. Indeed, studies have found that around 80-95 percent of the pre-pubertal children with gender dysphoria (formerly known as gender identity disorder) will no longer experience gender dysphoria in adolescence. However, according to the Obama administration's Department of Education and Department of Justice -- and this is the issue in this case -- children should be forced to sacrifice their expectations of privacy at the behest of one Washington bureaucrat directing who they shall be made to use the shower, locker room or bathroom with. This is unconscionable."

To review FRC's amicus brief, please see: downloads.frc.org/EF/EF17A11.pdf