The challenge, which asks a judge to declare the directive unlawful, follows a federal directive to USA schools this month to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.
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The Arizona Department of Education, Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R.), and the states of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin joined Texas in the lawsuit.
The state of Texas, along with ten other states, filed a lawsuit against an Obama administration transgender bathroom directive – in order to “protect” a Texoma school district.
The battle between President Obama and conservative states over the rights of transgender students and individuals just got more complicated and litigious, as 11 states announced a lawsuit against the federal government Wednesday afternoon, according to BuzzFeed.
Since Obama, a Democrat, took office in January 2009, Texas, the most populous Republican-controlled state, has filed suit against his administration more than three dozen times.
In response, the U.S. Department of Justice sent out guidelines that say schools are obligated to “allow students to participate in sex-segregated activities and access sex-segregated facilities consistent with their gender identity”.
The issue of transgender usage of bathrooms exploded on the national scene in the wake of House Bill 2 in North Carolina, which became law on March 23.
“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. “For that reason, I chose not to join the Texas lawsuit”, Hood continued. The lawsuit, however, claims that the Obama administration is imposing a new version of the federal law.
LGBT rights activists say they also care about safety and privacy, but that the concerns about the bathroom issue are overblown and end up further stigmatizing or perpetuating violence against transgender people.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Wednesday.
If they don’t, the schools risk losing federal funding.
Kilar said Titles VII and IX of the Civil Rights Act prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, adding that federal courts already have ruled that the law includes protections for gay and transgender people.
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“There’s not been a single increase of incidences in any bad behavior in bathrooms in any of the places where positive nondiscrimination laws have been passed”, he said.
