USCA11 Case: 18-13592 Date Filed: 07/14/2021 Page: 22 of 80
explained, the policy fails to treat even all transgender students within the School District the same. See supra at 12–16. The policy turns solely on the information provided at the time of enrollment, and a transgender student who updates his documents prior to enrollment would not be barred from using the bathroom matching the sex on his legal documents. This, of course, is in contrast to the treatment Mr. Adams received.
Despite the dissent’s imagined parade of horribles, this opinion does not resolve any other issue of student privacy. First, we reiterate that this policy does not do more than rule on whether Mr. Adams has shown that the policy was arbitrary as applied to him. Second, we reject the dissent’s characterization of our opinion as not acknowledging students’ interest in “avoiding the exposure of their bodies to members of the opposite sex.” Dissenting Op. at 67. To the contrary, we recognize student privacy interests as “[u]ndoubtedly … important.” See supra at 11. However, the point here is that the School District has never shown how its policy furthers that interest, as this record nowhere indicates that there has ever been any kind of “exposure” in the bathrooms at Nease High School, which all contain separate stalls with doors that close and lock. See R. Doc. 151-17 at 12 (School Board admitting that “all multi-user boys’ restrooms and girls’ restrooms at Nease High School have one or more stalls in them with doors that close and lock”; that “all students who use a girls’ restroom at Nease High School must use a
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