It's also a big ####ing deal to the teenager who's trying to use the locker room before gym class and identifies as a girl. Interestingly, she does have a right to be protected from bigotry and discrimination. That's why I lean toward the transgender teen in this story.
Right, and you know what else is a big ####ing deal to teenage girls? Zits. Not being asked to the prom. Etc. etc. We are weighing the feelings of teenage girls here and trying to come up with a solution.
I am curious, what right do the teenage girls have to a segregated changing area in the first place? How is that established in case law?
Here's the closest I can get to explaining that based on the case law - which is really the case law of transgender bathroom/locker room denials by the schools, prior to the U.S. Department of Education shifting its position and the new attempts to include transgender people as a protected class:
People have a privacy right while using the restroom. The extent of that right, the reasons behind it, who's responsible for protecting it, all of that is in a constant state of "well, this sounds kind of reasonable" flux with the courts. Schools and businesses need to protect that mostly undefined privacy right. As such, they are allowed to use rational basis reasons for limiting who gets to use what restrooms, and how they're constructed, and that kind of thing. But, of course, they aren't allowed to violate federal or state anti-discrimination laws.