A few months ago, we told you the story about Coy Mathis, a six-year old transgender girl from Fountain, Colorado who was barred from using the girls’ restroom at her elementary school. After removing her from the elementary school’s transphobic environment, her very supportive parents, Kathyrn and Jeremy Mathis, sued the Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8 for discrimination, and we are happy to report that the Mathis family won.

According to the ruling, the court found that the school district “discriminatorily denied” Coy “full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages in a place of public accommodation due to (her) sex and sexual orientation.”

Coy and her family were represented by attorney Michael Silverman, Executive Director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund. Silverman called the case “a high water mark for transgender students,” and believes Coy’s victory will usher in a new era of understanding and acceptance of transgender individuals and their rights.

While Vice President Joe Biden called transgender rights the “civil rights issue of our time,” only sixteen states have passed gender expression non-discrimination protections and states without protections continue to face a battle steeped in prejudice, fear, and fantastical situations involving the bathroom and women and children. New York State, for example, failed to pass its own legislation that would protect transgender individuals as the New York State Senate refused to bring the bill to a vote.

While we relish in Coy’s victory, the fight for transgender rights in other states continues.

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