Transgender teen Gavin Grimm will soon face the US Supreme Court in his case against the Gloucester County School Board in Virginia.
Grimm has been fighting for his right to use his school’s male bathroom since 2015, deferring to the Obama administration’s protections of transgender students.
Ahead of the landmark hearing, six faith groups—including the Mormon Church—have filed a brief to rule against transgender rights.
The brief reads: “Making gender identity a protected class under Title IX implies that traditional attitudes toward gender identity are discriminatory.
“That implication, enshrined in federal civil rights law, would impose a stigma on religious people and institutions whose faith dictates that gender identity is determined by one’s birth sex.”
“Religious denominations and their members could come under attack for selecting leaders who reflect their religious beliefs about gender. And religious Americans could find themselves increasingly marginalised for believing that gender is immutable and divinely ordained.”
Essentially, the church is fighting for its right to discriminate against the transgender community under the guise of religious freedom.
“Religious colleges and universities would find it difficult to maintain sex-specific dormitories and other residences. The modesty and privacy of sex-specific facilities, such as showers and changing rooms, could be compromised,” it continues.
The brief has been signed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and the Christian Legal Society.