T.D. v. Wrigley:
Participation in Title IX lawsuit underlines state government’s hostility toward transgender North Dakotans
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 8, 2024
CONTACT
Noah Parrish, Communications Director
[email protected]
651.432.0171
Organization leading lawsuit challenging ban on essential health care for transgender youth calls for greater inclusion and empathy, fewer attacks on rights and freedoms
Following North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley’s announcement on Tuesday that the state will join a lawsuit brought by Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s actions protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ students under Title IX, Gender Justice is calling on state leaders to halt their relentless attacks on the state’s gay and transgender citizens.
Christina Sambor, North Dakota state director for Gender Justice, issued the following statement:
“Rather than undertaking the challenging but necessary work of making North Dakota a place where all people, including our transgender citizens, can live their lives alongside one another in safety, comfort, and peace, our state government has chosen to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to drive transgender people out of public life.
“Adding to our Legislature’s obsessive focus on legislating transgender people’s rights and freedoms away, our attorney general’s participation in this lawsuit is yet another ugly and shameful attack on young people who seek nothing more than to live their lives and participate fully in our communities in keeping with who they truly are.
“As a lifelong North Dakotan, I know the recent actions of our government are far out of step with the values of the people of this state, most of whom are more than willing to make space for anyone who chooses to build their life here.
“We call on the people who purport to represent us in state government to redirect their efforts away from these relentless efforts to ostracize our transgender neighbors and sow division among North Dakotans, and toward a vision for the future of this state that’s more welcoming, respectful, and reflective of the common values we share.”
With the Lawyering Project and Ciresi Conlin LLC, Gender Justice represents the North Dakota families, transgender youth, and doctor who filed a lawsuit in September 2023 seeking to get North Dakota’s law banning best-practice health care for transgender young people permanently scrapped for violating their rights under the North Dakota Constitution.
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Gender Justice is a legal and policy advocacy non-profit dedicated to advancing gender equity through the law. It works to ensure that people of all genders have a meaningful right to bodily autonomy, safety, health, and opportunity by dismantling legal, structural, and cultural barriers that contribute to gender inequity. For more information, please visit www.genderjustice.us.
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