California Child Sues Private School Over Gender Assignment

There was a showstopping number in West Side Story called “I enjoy being a girl.” The heroine sang it: Those were the days.

“Nikki Brar is a courageous seven-year-old child who told her family what she has long known to be true: that although she was assigned to the male gender at birth, her true gender identity is that of a girl,” a lawsuit filed in Orange County on August 2, 2017 reads. “Her loving parents and sister supported her in this affirmation of her core identity and sense of self; her older sister’s first question was: what pronoun do you want us to use?”

“But Heritage Oak Private Education—the for-profit, secular, private school Nikki was enrolled in—in consultation with and at the direction of its parent company Nobel Learning Communities, Inc.—unlawfully discriminated against Nikki. Heritage Oak repudiated Nikki’s core identity.”

Three law school professors–Taylor Flynn from the Western New England School of Law; Richard L. Hasen from the UC Irvine School of Law; and Joseph Lipton from Harvard Law–signed onto the lawsuit.

Related Topics