Scott did not clarify his comments when asked by a reporter whether he thought allowing a transgender person to use the restroom of their gender identity was the same as allowing a man to use a women’s bathroom.
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At the center of the dust-up is David Thweatt, superintendent of the Harrold ISD, a rural district of a little more than 100 kindergarten through 12th-grade students.
The battle over the issue burst into national view in March after the North Carolina General Assembly passed House Bill 2, which prohibited transgender people from using bathrooms that do not match the gender on their birth certificate.
Calling the 32-page lawsuit a response to overreach by the federal government rather than a question about bathrooms, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said Wednesday that a letter sent by the president earlier this month attempts to apply “one size fits all” policies to a complex issue without considering individual needs.
Tennessee will join 10 other states in a lawsuit suing President Barack Obama’s administration over its directive regarding transgender student bathroom access in public schools.
“The desire to accommodate others’ discomfort can not justify a policy that singles out and disadvantages a particular class of students”, said the highly-disputed guidance issued by the Departments of Justice and Education jointly on May 13. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch has previously said “there is no room in our schools for discrimination”.
On Wednesday, Gov. Walker said through a spokesman that the Obama administration’s directive was “unlawful”.
A sign protesting a recent North Carolina law restricting transgender bathroom access is seen in the bathroom stalls at the 21C Museum Hotel in Durham, North Carolina May 3, 2016.
“He didn’t make any laws that say anything, he just said lets start being nice to people and not segregating them from rest rooms”, Schaller said.
School districts from Texas and Arizona also joined the suit, which names the United States government and a host of federal agencies and officials as defendants.
“The fact that the federal government has yet again decided that it knows what is best for every one of our local communities is insulting and, quite frankly, intolerable”, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas said. In the joint filing in US District Court in Wichita Falls, Texas, the states accused the federal government of trying to rewrite laws by “executive fiat”. Together, they say the Obama directive turns schools into a laboratory experiment without thinking of the children.
Manny Garcia, Executive Director of the Texas Democratic Party, said the lawsuit filed Wednesday is an embarrassment for Texas. Backed by his board president and others, he said this month that “our policy helps protect kids from bullying … nothing more, nothing less”. Rick Scott, said, “We’re clearly reviewing it”.
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“It’s not moot because it was thrusted upon us by the federal government”, Thweatt said, “or we were going to risk losing our federal funding”. In addition, the Harrold school district and another small district in Arizona were included. “Our civil rights laws, including Title VII and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, have long prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex, and federal courts and agencies have long recognized that this includes protections for transgender people”.
