(AP) 
WASHINGTON — Public schools must permit transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their chosen gender identity, according to an Obama administration directive issued amid a court fight between the federal government and North Carolina.
The guidance from leaders at the departments of Education and Justice says public schools are obligated to treat transgender students in a way that matches their gender identity, even if their education records or identity documents indicate a different sex.
“There is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement accompanying the directive, which is being sent to school districts Friday.
At the Republican Party of Texas convention in Dallas, state officials who have blasted such policies in Fort Worth schools and elsewhere immediately decried the federal move. As word spread late Thursday, convention delegates promised to make the decree an issue at Friday’s sessions.