Justice Department sues Loudoun County school board over gender ideology policies

The Justice Department this week sued the Loudoun County School Board in Virginia, accusing it of violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by enforcing a policy that mandates compliance with gender ideology.

The department accused the school board of violating the rights of two Christian male students by forcing all students to adopt the board's understanding of gender identity, including its application that affects all students’ use of intimate spaces, including bathrooms and locker rooms.

The two Christian students at Stone Bridge High School's religious beliefs require them to use the biological pronouns of people and use sex-segregated facilities, the Justice Department claimed in a news release Monday.

“Students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “Loudoun County’s decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality.”

The lawsuit comes after the school board suspended the two male students for 10 days and required them to turn in a "Comprehensive Student Support Plan,” which it claimed further violates the boys’ rights to freedom of religion.

The school board claimed that the two Christian students' opposition to a biological female student using a male locker room amounted to “sex-based discrimination” and “sexual harassment.”

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.