Judge: Pitt transgender locker room ban didn’t discriminate
JOHNSTOWN (AP) – A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from a transgender man who alleged the University of Pittsburgh expelled and subjected him to FBI scrutiny after a dispute over using a men’s locker room.
U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson ruled this week the university didn’t discriminate against 25-year-old Seamus Johnston because he was medically a woman when it barred him from men’s facilities at its Johnstown campus.
Johnston filed a name change with Pitt in 2011 and enrolled in a men’s weightlifting class, but the judge says he didn’t undergo a sex change or change his gender on official records.
Johnston was arrested when he ignored the locker room ban. He claimed the university retaliated by providing the FBI his name during bomb threats in 2012. The FBI questioned but didn’t charge Johnston.