USCA11 Case: 18-13592 Date Filed: 07/14/2021 Page: 35 of 80
in restrooms by a transgender student, the School Board conceded there were zero such incidents. Thus, there is no evidence of a correlation between the incidents of invasions of privacy at St. Johns School District and the sex of the student. If anything, the dissent’s insistence that 99.96 percent of students in St. Johns are not, like Mr. Adams, transgender, simply underscores how limited the ruling today is, which again applies only to Adams.
IV
We affirm the District Court’s award of compensatory damages because there is no doubt Mr. Adams suffered harm. Medical professionals explain that many transgender people experience debilitating distress and anxiety from gender dysphoria, which is alleviated by using restrooms consistent with their gender identity. Medical opinion also concludes that “forc[ing] transgender people to live in accordance with the sex assigned to them at birth” both “fail[s]” to change transgender people from who they are and “cause[s] significant harm.”
True to medical opinion, Mr. Adams described that he suffered anxiety and depression from walking past the boys’ restroom on his way to the single-stall bathroom, knowing every other boy is permitted to use it but him. He testified to feeling “alienated” and “humiliat[ed]” as a result of the policy. Mr. Adams testified that, because of the policy, “I know that the school sees me as less of a
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