USCA11 Case: 18-13592 Date Filed: 07/14/2021 Page: 6 of 80
Alongside his social and medical transition, Mr. Adams amended his legal documents to reflect his male sex. Following Florida agencies’ established procedures, Mr. Adams updated the sex marker on his learner’s driving permit (which became his driver’s license) and his birth certificate. Both now read “male” or “M.” At the time of trial, Mr. Adams had not yet changed the sex listed on his U.S. passport but testified he could easily do so by presenting a letter from his physician stating he was being clinically treated for gender transition.[1]
In 2010, Mr. Adams enrolled in St. Johns County schools in the fourth grade. In 2015, he entered the ninth grade at Nease High School, which is in the same school district. By this point, Mr. Adams was already presenting as a boy and transitioning. Before Mr. Adams started the ninth grade, his mother informed the school that Adams was transgender, undergoing the transition process, and should be considered a boy student. She did not discuss Adams’s bathroom use with the school. For his first six weeks as a ninth grader, Mr. Adams used the boys’ restroom without incident. One day, however, the school pulled Mr. Adams from class and told him he could no longer use the boys’ restroom, because two unidentified girl students who saw Adams entering the boys’ restroom had complained. It is unclear why the female students reported Mr. Adams. The
- ↑ See Change of Sex Marker, U.S. Dep’t of State, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/need-passport/change-of-sex-marker.html (last visited July 13, 2021).
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