Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/17-1618_hfci.pdf
Page Number: 83

46 

BOSTOCK v. CLAYTON COUNTY 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

sex with which they identify, and while the Court does not
define  what  it  means  by  a  transgender  person,  the  term 
may apply to individuals who are “gender fluid,” that is, in-
dividuals  whose  gender  identity  is  mixed  or  changes  over 
time.45  Thus, a person who has not undertaken any physi-
cal transitioning may claim the right to use the bathroom 
or locker room assigned to the sex with which the individual 
identifies  at  that  particular  time.    The  Court  provides  no
clue why a transgender person’s claim to such bathroom or 
locker room access might not succeed.

A similar issue has arisen under Title IX, which prohibits 
sex discrimination by any elementary or secondary school 
and any college or university that receives federal financial 
assistance.46   In  2016,  a  Department  of  Justice  advisory 
warned that barring a student from a bathroom assigned to 
individuals of the gender with which the student identifies 
constitutes unlawful sex discrimination,47 and some lower 
court decisions have agreed.  See Whitaker v. Kenosha Uni-
fied School Dist. No. 1 Bd. of Ed., 858 F. 3d 1034, 1049 (CA7 
2017);  G.  G.  v.  Gloucester  Cty.  School  Bd.,  822  F.  3d  709, 
715  (CA4  2016),  vacated  and  remanded,  580  U. S.  ___ 
(2017); Adams v. School Bd. of St. Johns Cty., 318 F. Supp.
3d  1293,  1325  (MD  Fla.  2018);  cf.  Doe  v.  Boyertown  Area 

—————— 

45 See 1 Sadock, Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, at 2063 (ex-
plaining that “gender is now often regarded as more fluid” and “[t]hus,
gender identity may be described as masculine, feminine, or somewhere 
in between”). 

46 Title IX makes it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of sex in ed-
ucation:  “No  person  in  the  United  States  shall,  on  the  basis  of  sex,  be 
excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected
to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Fed-
eral financial assistance.”  20 U. S. C. §1681(a). 

47 See Dept. of Justice & Dept. of Education, Dear Colleague Letter on
(Dear  Colleague  Letter), 

Transgender  Students,  May  13,  2016 
https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201605-title-
ix-transgender.pdf.