Children Should Not Have to Suffer the State’s Injustice
NASHVILLE — Last year, two families in Wilson County, Tenn., signed on as plaintiffs in a federal civil rights lawsuit challenging Tennessee legislation that prohibits transgender students from using bathrooms that align with their gender identities.
But as WPLN News reported last week, both families have since left the state, believing their children would not be safe here long enough to see the lawsuit through.
Now that the plaintiffs have moved away, a district judge has dismissed the suit. In many ways, this development tells us more about the state of human rights in the red states than either the lawsuit or the law it challenges.
When people are so committed to justice that they sue the state they live in and then are forced to leave anyway, it serves as yet another stark reminder that fighting institutional prejudice always comes at a cost.
