Doe v. Madison Metropolitan School District

The trial court declined to allow the parents to sue without at least informing the court and counsel for the other parties to the lawsuit of their identities. The parents appealed that ruling and the intermediate appellate court and then the Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed the trial court on that issue. The Wisconsin Supreme Court also ruled that the question of whether the school district, pending resolution of the case, should have to inform a student’s parents if a student requests to use a different name or pronouns than they were assigned at birth, even if the student does not consent to the disclosure, was not then properly before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

UPDATE: On June 30, 2023, the sole remaining plaintiff dismissed her appeal of the trial court order holding that she lacked standing to challenge the school district’s policy because there was no indication she or her child would ever be affected by the policy. This case therefore is now concluded. We were successful in defeating this effort to overturn the Madison school district’s good policy protecting transgender and non-binary students against disclosure to their parents without their consent that they are using a name or pronouns inconsistent with the sex they were assigned at birth.