Teen wins battle in US ''toilet wars''

Washington, May 23

A US federal court ruled on Wednesday in favour of a transgender teenager who fought for years to use the men's bathrooms at his high school in Virginia.

In February, President Donald Trump's administration overturned rules set by his predecessor Barack Obama requiring public schools to let transgender students use bathrooms and locker rooms matching the gender with which they identify, rather than the one on their birth certificate.

Following that decision, the US Supreme Court in March sent Gavin Grimm's case back to a lower court for reconsideration.

"I feel an incredible sense of relief," Grimm said in a statement after US District Judge Arenda Wright Allen denied the Gloucester County School Board's motion to dismiss the case and allowed it to go forward.

"I was determined not to give up because I didn't want any other student to have to suffer the same experience that I had to go through," added Grimm, who graduated from high school last year and has been fighting the school board's policy since he was 15 years old.

Grimm, who identifies as a man but was born as a woman, is at the heart of a pitched battle for transgender rights nationwide.

Wright Allen ordered the parties to schedule a settlement conference within 30 days, but a ruling on the substance of the case is expected, as well as an appeal. — AFP