In a CNN interview, Gavin Grimm, the
transgender student at the center of the bathroom debate, says he's
just a regular teen.
Grimm, a junior at Gloucester High
School who came out in his sophomore year, is challenging his
school's policy that prohibits transgender students such as himself
from using the bathroom of their choice. Grimm's lawyers argued that
the policy violates federal civil rights laws.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
agreed, but the Supreme Court put that ruling on hold as the school
board appeals the case.
“I'm just a 17-year-old who likes
video games, going out with his friends and riding my bike and
playing with my animals,” Grimm
said. “There's nothing particularly extraordinary or dangerous
about me.”
Supporters of laws that bar transgender
people from using the bathroom of their choice argue that they are
needed to protect women and children.
(Related: Pat
McCrory calls barring transgender bathroom use “common sense” in
new ad.)
Grimm said that a unisex bathroom
provided by the school was “unacceptable.”
“People tend to view the unisex
bathrooms that were created as an accommodation, but they were not.
I didn't ask for unisex bathrooms. I'm not unisex. And that's a
separate facility which only I am forced to be using, which is
unacceptable,” he said.
“I'm just a person, who's trying to
live his life like anybody else is. And that I have to think about
my bathroom usage is unacceptable,” Grimm added.