In a dissenting opinion to the Supreme Courts refusal to hear a case about a schools policy supporting transgender students, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said that the Court should have heard the case and claimed that the schools policy to not out trans kids to their parents kept the parents in the dark about the identities of their children.The case Parents Protecting Our Children v. Eau Claire Area School District, Wisconsin is about the school districts policy of supporting trans and gender non-conforming students on a case-by-case basis. The policy doesnt ban teachers from outing students to their parents but it also doesnt require them to. The policy, adopted in 2021, notes that there may be safety concerns when it comes to the parents of trans kids being informed about their identities. Related New Hampshire Supreme Court upholds school policy protecting trans students from forced outing In their ruling, the court shut down a mother who claimed the district violated her parental rights. A group of conservative parents sued, saying that their parental authority gives them the right to be told whatever teachers know about their kids identities so that they can say no to childrens often short-sighted desires, according to the petition they filed with the Supreme Court in June. Stay connected to your community Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today The district court and the appellate court both rejected the parents lawsuit on a question of standing, since the parents couldnt show that they had a trans kid in the school district and therefore couldnt show that they were actually affected by the districts policy. Six Supreme Court justices rejected their petition in an unsigned order. Alito wrote a dissent and Thomas joined. Justice Brett Kavanaugh also dissented, but he didnt join Alitos dissenting opinion.Alitos dissent says the issue is schools that encourage[] a student to transition to a new gender or assist[] in that process without parental knowledge or consent. The policy at Eau Claire is not about encouraging students to transition since being transgender isnt something that one can convince someone else to be. Alito noted that the districts policy had a plan for when parents arent involved in helping create a Gender Support Plan for their child and that the schools training materials said, Parents are not entitled to know their kids identities. That knowledge must be earned.Alito wrote that its not possible for the parents to know whether they had a trans child without the school telling them, which would mean that the possibility that their kids are trans is enough to have standing to sue.The challenged policy and associated equity training specifically encourage school personnel to keep parents in the dark about the identities of their children, Alito wrote, using scare quotes around the word identities. Conservatives often oppose thinking of LGBTQ+ identities as such and instead insist that they are behaviors or mental illnesses. Thus, the parents fear that the school district might make decisions for their children without their knowledge and consent is not speculative,' he wrote.Generally, Supreme Court justices dont write opinions when refusing to hear cases, but this isnt the first time that Alito and Thomas have done so on a case about LGBTQ+ issues. In 2020, when the Supreme Court refused a petition from Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk Kim Davis who infamously refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015 Thomas and Alito signed a dissenting opinion saying that the Court should have used the opportunity to end marriage equality in the U.S. Transgender youth make up an outsized percentage of homeless youth. The Trevor Project found that 28% of LGBTQ+ youth report being homeless at some point in their lives, and over 35% of trans and nonbinary youth reported the same. Many say that parental and familial rejection factors into their homelessness.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.