A 6-year-old transgender girl will be able to return to school after winning the right to use the girls' bathroom.

The Colorado Rights Division ruled in favor of Coy Mathis, the transgender girl, in her case against the Fountain-Fort Carson School District.

Coy's parents New York-based Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund took the case to court after Coy's school district said she was no longer allowed to use the girl's bathroom at Eagleside Elementary.

Coy was told she had to use the bathroom in the teachers' lounge or the nurse's office.

Coy's parents were worried that doing so would stigmatize their daughter and lead to bullying.

The ruling said that the ban "creates an environment that is objectively and subjectively hostile, intimidating or offensive."

Coy was homeschooled during the proceedings.

The ruling is the first in the nation to find that transgender students must be allowed to use the correct bathroom.

Coy's mother, Kathryn Mathis, said she's glad that Coy will now be able to return to school.   "Schools should not discriminate against their students," Mathis said. "All we ever wanted was for Coy's school to treat her the same as other little girls. We are extremely happy that she now will be treated equally."

The Mathises said that Coy, who is a triplet, showed early preferences for things associated with girls. At five months, she took a pink blanket meant for her sister; she disliked toys and books about cars, monsters, and sports. As soon as she could talk, Coy spoke of herself as a girl. Coy refused to leave the house wearing boy clothes and became withdrawn and depressed, telling her parents she wanted to get "fixed" by a doctor. Eventually, her parents took her to experts and decided to help her live as a girl. The Mathises said Coy has blossomed since then.

Transgender children experience a mismatch between their sex, which is based on anatomy, and their gender, which includes culturally-enforced behaviors, tasks, and positions.

Gender identity is not the same as sexual orientation, which it is often confused with. "Gender identity is who you are, and sexual orientation is who you want to have sex with," Dr. Johanna Olson explained. Olson is a professor of clinical pediatrics who treats transgender children at the University of Southern California.

School districts in several states, including Colorado, now have policies allow transgender students to use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify. Colorado and fifteen other states have anti-discrimination laws that include protections for transgender people.