USCA11 Case: 18-13592 Date Filed: 07/14/2021 Page: 36 of 80
person, less of a boy, certainly, than my peers.” This is so, despite as the District Court noted in its findings of fact supporting damages, that Mr. Adams
has undergone social, medical, and legal transitions to present himself as a boy. Adams wears his hair short; he dresses like a boy; his voice is deeper than a girl’s; his family, peers, classmates and teachers use male pronouns to refer to him; he takes hormones which suppress menstruation and make his body more masculine, including the development of facial hair and typical male muscle development; he has had a double mastectomy so his body looks more like a boy; the state of Florida has provided him with a birth certificate and driver’s license which state he is a male; and when out in public, Adams uses the men’s restroom.
Adams, 318 F. Supp. 3d at 1326.[1]
Mr. Adams also suffered harm because he was separated from his peers in single-stall restroom facilities. Mr. Adams had little choice in this matter. The evidence at trial indicated that using the girls’ restroom at school hindered Mr. Adams’s clinical treatment for gender dysphoria. As such, because of the bathroom policy, Mr. Adams had to use single-stall restrooms at school.[2] Mr. Adams explained it felt like a “walk of shame” when he had to walk past the
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- ↑ The dissent appears to overlook the fact that the District Court’s damages award was based on its review of the full record developed at trial, which includes recognition of Mr. Adams’s social, medical, and legal transition. See Dissenting Op. at 49.
- ↑ The evidence at trial also showed that the School District expected this outcome. The School District official who developed the bathroom policy testified that she would prefer a transgender student to use the gender-neutral single-stall facilities instead of the restroom of his sex assigned at birth. This employee also acknowledged that a transgender student who, like Mr. Adams, presents as a boy, could face “safety, security, and privacy concerns” while using the restroom of his sex assigned at birth.
