A US judge blocked Obama administration guidance that transgender public school students must be allowed to use bathrooms of their choice, granting a nationwide injunction sought by a group of 13 states led by Texas.
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U.S. District Judge, Reed O’Connor sided with the school districts on Sunday, opposing the Obama administration’s rules on transgender bathrooms. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, an opponent of the administration’s efforts, praised the injunction on Monday, saying it fought back against “Obama administration’s latest illegal federal overreach”, reports CNN.
Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the Human Rights Campaign, said the order “puts thousands of transgender students at even greater risk of marginalization, harassment, and discrimination as they return to school this fall”.
This has been the third legal setback for transgender rights in federal court this month. Schools that do it can be stripped of federal funds, the U.S. Department of Education warned in a letter released in May. Federal officials did not explicitly make that threat upon issuing the directive, although they also never ruled out the possibility.
Last June, I said Texas would not be black-mailed by the president who threatened the loss of education funding to get school districts to comply with his order.
“We are disappointed by this ruling in Texas, but the decision does not change our clients’ ongoing legal challenge to North Carolina’s House Bill 2”. In addition, a Supreme Court case regarding a transgender student in Virginia is now on hold, but the decision regarding that case will likely supersede any ruling from a lesser court.
The decision comes on the heels of a U.S. It applies to schools nationwide, as many districts reopen this week after the summer vacation.
“This is one judge in Texas who is trying to block advice and guidance from the Obama administration”, he says.
In response to North Carolina’s law, the Obama administration issued its now-rebuffed guidelines.
Texas officials filed the lawsuit on behalf of their home state and 12 others.
“This case presents the hard issue of balancing the protection of students’ rights and that of personal privacy when using school bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and other intimate facilities, while ensuring that no student is unnecessarily marginalized while attending school”, O’Connor said.
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“GSAFE continues to know that gender-inclusive practices, like those issued by the DOE/DOJ earlier this year, create learning environments that allow all students to not only be their full selves but also be successful”, Juchems said. The discussion of allowing transgender people to use bathrooms according to their gender identities has been a hot topic.
