Eleven states filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Obama administration in regards to the federal directive allowing transgender students to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identities.
The Department of Education issued a clarification in 2014, stating that Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments, which prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded education programs and activities, also prohibits discrimination on basis of gender identity. The Obama administration utilized this for the issued directive.
Texas governor Greg Abbott announced the lawsuit on Wednesday on Twitter. The lawsuit states: “Defendants have conspired to turn workplaces and educational settings across the country into laboratories for a massive social experiment., flouting the democratic profess,and running roughshod over commonsense policies protecting children and basic privacy rights.”
Since Texas’ declaration, ten states have joined it in its lawsuit. These states are Oklahoma, Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Maine, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah, and Georgia. The lawsuit is being carried out by Republican attorney general Ken Paxton.
“His lawsuit is changing the way that the Obama administration is trampling the United States Constitution,” Abbott said to reporters.
The directive from the United States Justice and Education departments was issued after the Justice Department and North Carolina sued each other over a state law that requires transgender people to use the public bathroom corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate.
Supporters say the law is needed to protect women and children from sexual predators, while the Justice Department argues the threat is practically nonexistent and law discriminatory.
