President Barack Obama’s administration on May 13 told US public schools that transgender students must be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice, upsetting Republicans and paving the way for fights over federal funding and legal authority.
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“I think that it’s a distraction for the federal government to do it and it’s also unconstitutional”, Bruce said.
“What happened and what continues to happen is you have transgender kids in schools”. Schools that don’t comply with the directive risk losing federal funding. It relied on an interpretation of Title IX, which protects people from discrimination based on sex in education initiatives that receive federal financial assistance. Schmidt said he is now considering whether Kansas will join the same lawsuit with the 11 other states or if it will pursue its own. It also encourages Schmidt to consider filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Justice and Education departments, which issued the order. “Our resolution urges the state to join the multi-state lawsuit filed yesterday and calls on Congress to reign in this ridiculous federal demand”.
Meanwhile, Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pledged at a press conference Tuesday to support schools that refuse to let transgender bathrooms of their choice.
“DeWine’s statement came a couple of weeks after federal officials issued directives, noting that schools “‘must allow transgender students access to such facilities consistent with their gender identity” as determined by the “individual’s internal sense of gender, ‘” DeWine wrote. “It does not mean they get to use the girls’ room if they’re a boy”, Patrick said. She cried while asking why the state wants to force her daughter into the boys’ room at school.
Republican Sen. Steve Fitzgerald retorted that transgender people are detached from reality.
“You, specifically you, are endangering my child’s life”, said Ann Elder, mother of a 10-year-old transgender child near Houston.
Obama said there “are a lot of things more pressing” than the transgender bathroom controversy, including Islamic State, the economy and jobs.
Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, a Hutchinson Republican, said President Barack Obama “overstepped his bounds” by issuing a decree on what should be a state-level decision.
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Republicans have blasted the directive as executive branch overreach, and more than a dozen states have sued the Obama administration to block it.
