Texas and 10 other states are suing the Obama administration over its directive to US public schools to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity, the AP reports. The lawsuit announced Wednesday includes Oklahoma, Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Maine, Arizona, Louisiana, Utah, and Georgia. It asks a North Texas federal court to declare the directive unlawful. The Obama administration has "conspired to turn workplace 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 lawsuit reads.
Many of the conservative states involved had previously vowed defiance, calling the guidance a threat to safety while being accused of discrimination by supporters of transgender rights. The White House had no comment on the lawsuit. The Justice Department said it would review the complaint and did not comment further. Texas' lieutenant governor has previously said the state is willing to forfeit $10 billion in federal education dollars rather than comply. Pressed about whether he knew of any instances in which a child's safety had been threatened because of transgender bathroom rights, Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said "there's not a lot of research" during a news conference about the lawsuit. (More transgender stories.)
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