Rachel Kurzius
Photo by Sara D. Davis/Getty Images.
Eleven states are suing the federal government over guidance that directs public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that align with their gender identity.
The DOJ argues that preventing transgender people from using public bathrooms that do not match the gender on their birth certificates is a violation of the U.S. Civil Rights Act, and the directive from the Departments of Justice and Education followed dueling lawsuits between the Feds and North Carolina over the state’s controversial HB2 legislation.
“This guidance further clarifies what we’ve said repeatedly—that gender identity is protected under Title IX,” said Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. when the directive was released on May 13. “Educators want to do the right thing for students, and many have reached out to us for guidance on how to follow the law.”
But the 11 states disagree, saying that the Obama administration is “foisting its new version of federal law” on schools that receive federal funding. The guidance in question is not law, though it states that the administration could punish schools that discriminate against transgender students.
Today’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas, accuses the federal government of conspiring “to turn workplaces and educational settings across
the country into laboratories for a massive social experiment, flouting the democratic
process, and running roughshod over commonsense policies protecting children and
basic privacy rights.”
The states involved in the suit are Texas, Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Arizona, Maine, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah, and Georgia. The named defendants are the Department of Justice, Department of Education, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Department of Labor, and associated officials.
“Our guidance sends a clear message to transgender students across the country: here in America, you are safe, you are protected and you belong—just as you are,” said Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division two weeks ago.
Washington D.C. law states that people can use whatever bathroom corresponds with their gender identity. Last week a security guard at a Giant in Northeast allegedly assaulted a transgender woman trying to use the women’s restroom. The security guard was arrested.
