Girl launches changing room privacy case The Times 23.04.20

The original article is here. 

A 13-year-old girl who objects to sharing changing rooms with transgender pupils has been granted permission by the High Court to take landmark legal action against her local council over its schools policy.

She is seeking to quash guidance from Oxfordshire county council that transgender girls can use female toilets, changing rooms and dormitories on school residential trips, and take part in girls’ sport.

The teenager said this gives her “no right to privacy from the opposite sex”.

The legal action is the first of its kind and could have implications for hundreds of schools that have adopted similar guidelines.

The council “utterly refutes” concerns that children are being put at risk.

The girl’s mother said she was “astounded” that her daughter was having to go to court to have her concerns taken seriously.

She said: “The more my daughter reads that gender identity is more important than her status as a young woman, the more frustrated she becomes, because she knows that she is entitled to female-only spaces, to compete in female-only competitions and to sleep in female-only dorms.”

The legal team expects the case to be heard in the autumn.

It is being financed through crowdfunding and is backed by the Safe Schools Alliance UK, which campaigns for safeguarding in schools.

Tanya Carter, its spokeswoman, said: “We believe that the guidance is unlawful and undermines both safeguarding and the Equality Act 2010.”