Transgender teen in Virginia wins school bathroom appeal

A federal appeals court ruled 2-1 in favor of a Virginia transgender teenager on Tuesday, saying he can sue the Gloucester County school board for discrimination after it banned him from using the boys' bathroom.

The court said a lower court should have deferred to the U.S. Education Department's position that transgender students should be able to use bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity rather than their biological sex, and doing anything else is a Title IX violation. Gavin Grimm, a high school junior, came out to classmates as trans and started using the boys' bathroom during his sophomore year, The Washington Post reports. Several weeks later, angry parents went to the school board, which went on to pass a policy that forces trans students to use bathrooms corresponding with their "biological gender;" later, Grimm was told to use a unisex bathroom.

The lower court now has to rehear Grimm's claims that the school board's policy violates federal law, and it also must reconsider Grimm's request to use the boys' bathroom at school while the case is pending.

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