Officials from 11 states sued the Obama administration on Wednesday, seeking to overturn a directive from the federal government that public schools should allow transgender students to use the bathroom matching their gender identity.
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The lawsuit includes Oklahoma, Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Maine, Arizona, Louisiana, Utah, and Georgia.
The lawsuit asked the court to block the federal government from “implementing, applying or enforcing the new rules, regulations and guidance interpretations”. “This represents just the latest example of the current administration’s attempts to accomplish by executive fiat what they couldn’t accomplish through the democratic process in Congress. By forcing through his policies by executive action, President Obama excluded the voice of the people”.
Numerous conservative states involved had previously called the guidance a threat to safety, the Guardian reports. “Those fights out to be fought out in Congress, not by one person in the White House”.
In a published letter on May 13, the Justice and Education department laid out the guidelines to create friendlier atmosphere for the transgender people in the country. “I can assure them that MS families are concerned more about these challenges than about lawsuits over restrooms”. The lawsuit was announced by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Eight states have already signed onto an amicus brief in an ongoing lawsuit, throwing support behind a school policy in Virginia that prevents transgender students from using the bathroom of their choice.
The battle is part of a wider debate on equal rights in the United States, where a flurry of initiatives have targeted the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) communities since a historic Supreme Court decision past year.
The issue of which bathrooms transgender individuals use has been an issue of public debate after North Carolina passed a law in March banning transgender individuals from using bathrooms in public and government buildings that is not in correspondence with their gender written on their birth certificate.
“Patrick’s condemnation was a little more enthusiastic: “[Obama] says he’s going to withhold funding if schools do not follow the policy”, he said earlier this month.
Whereas opponents say the laws put women and children at risk, defenders argue the directive is meant to combat descrimination.
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Information for this article was contributed by Paul J. Weber of The Associated Press and by Mark Berman, Moriah Balingit and Emma Brown of The Washington Post.
