It is against federal law for schools to prevent transgender students from using the toilets that correspond with their gender identities, the Obama administration says

Gavin Grimm, 16, who was born female but identifies as male, sued school administrators over a policy which requires him to use either the girls’ restrooms or a single-stall, unisex bathroom open to all students.

Grimm, who was born female but identifies as male, told his parents he was transgender in April 2014 and was allowed to use the boys’ restrooms at Gloucester High School during the last school year.

However some fellow students and their parents complained that this was a violation of privacy.

The dispute unfolded in a school board meeting.

The school board voted 6-1 to restrict students with “transgender issues” to single-stall unisex facilities or those corresponding to their biological sex.

Grimm said the decision was ‘stigmatizing and discriminatory’.

On Grimm’s behalf, The American Civil Liberties Union sued to overturn the policy in June 2015.

However, a federal judge sided with the school board in September and dismissed the sex discrimination claim.

Last week, The U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice made an argument in a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Grimm.

The government’s filing says ‘the policy that requires Gavin Grimm to use either the girls’ restrooms or a unisex bathroom constitutes unlawful bias under Title IX, the 1972 law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.’

Lawyers argue that the policy denies Grimm “a benefit that every other student at this school enjoys: access to restrooms that are consistent with his or her gender identity,”.

“Treating a student differently from other students because his birth-assigned sex diverges from his gender identity constitutes differential treatment on the basis of sex under Title IX.”

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights already has reached agreements with two southern California school districts to settle complaints of harassment and unequal treatment brought by transgender students.

Gavin Grimm’s case is now pending before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.