Trans man wins $4.7 million from school district that didn’t let him use the restroom

Trans rights got a win in Missouri this week after a transgender man who was barred from using the correct bathroom won a discrimination lawsuit, receiving $4.7 million dollars in damages and ending a decade-long lawsuit.

The defendant, known as “RMA” in the lawsuit, had the gender marker on his birth certificate updated in 2014, which was when he asked to use the boys’ facilities at school.

Related: Trans man gets justice in workplace discrimination case after fighting for a decade

He was denied health care coverage in 2013, but he didn’t stop fighting.

He sued the Blue Springs School District in Kansas City, Missouri after it prevented him from using the correct bathroom and changing facilities. The lawsuit was brought by RMA in October of 2015, saying that “defendants continued to deny [the plaintiff] access to the boy’s restrooms and locker rooms as of the filing of this petition.”

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The defendant also said that when he participated in boys’ athletic programs and sports teams, he was forced to use a “separate, single person, unisex bathroom outside of the boys’ locker room because Defendants refused to give him access.”

Thus, in 2014-2015, he decided not to participate in fall sports because he was forced to use separate facilities to change.

The case was originally decided in 2021 after a jury found that the school discriminated against RMA and awarded him $4.7 million. However, the district appealed. The district asked for “judgment notwithstanding the verdict,” which meant that a judge could overturn the decision.

When the subsequent trial occurred, and a judge heard the case, he sided with the school district. But after Tuesday’s verdict, which found the school district at fault, this decision was reversed by a judge who agreed with the initial jury’s decision.

Judge Anthony Gabbert said that the school district’s reasoning for excluding RMA, which was that he had female genitalia, was not a valid reason. Gabbert said that the district “did not actually determine the nature of RMA’s genitalia.”

The trial saw testimonies by RMA’s doctor, who had known him since he was nine and had been male as long as she had treated him.

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