A Virginia school district that discriminated against a transgender individual by making him go to the bathroom in a converted supply closet will have to pay $1.3 million in attorney’s fees and other costs accrued over years of litigation, LGBTQ Nation reported.
The Gloucester County School Board in Virginia reached a settlement with Gavin Grimm, who was a student in the district in 2014 when the school board held a meeting to create a policy to block him from using the boys restroom. He sued, and the district fought his case for years and filed multiple appeals, stretching it out for years.
“We are glad that this long litigation is finally over and that Gavin has been fully vindicated by the courts, but it should not have taken over six years of expensive litigation to get to this point,” said Josh Block, senior staff attorney with the ACLU LGBTQ & HIV Project, in a statement sent to Windy City Times. “After a year in which state legislatures have introduced an unprecedented number of bills targeting trans youth, we hope that the fee award will give other school boards and lawmakers pause before they use discrimination to score political points.”
Grimm, now 22, said that he won’t get any of the $1.3 million settlement since it’s going to pay for attorneys fees.