NJ judge blocks school policy of telling parents if their child wants to change gender identity

A federal judge in New Jersey ruled on Friday that three school districts are temporarily prohibited from enforcing a new policy that requires schools to inform parents if their child wants to change their gender identity.

Schools from the Marlboro, Manalapan-Englishtown and Middletown districts recently enacted policies that would require teachers to let parents know if a student wanted to go by a new name or pronoun, or wanted to use a different bathroom or play on a school sports team for a different gender.

"The state has demonstrated a reasonable probability of success on its claim that the Amended Policies, if implemented, will have a disparate impact on transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary youth," Monmouth County Judge David Bauman wrote in a preliminary injunction, according to Fox News. 

New Jersey's Democrat Governor Phil Murphy also came out against the policy, claiming that it would harm transgender youth. 

Bauman clarified that he wasn't "rendering any final judgments or determinations as to the merits of either the State or the School Boards' claims," while awaiting the decision of a bigger case. 

The school districts agreed to halt the policies as it plays out in court. 

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin praised the judge's decision, saying it was a win for LGBTQ rights. 

"As the Superior Court correctly found, and as we have argued from the start, it is likely that these new policies violate the rights of our most vulnerable residents by discriminating against them on the basis of gender identity or expression," Platkin wrote in a statement.  "The Court's decision today is a major victory for civil rights—especially for the civil rights of our State’s LGBTQIA+ students."