Texas among 12 U.S. states opposing Obama's call for inclusive trans bathroom rights

Texas and 12 other states asked a federal judge on Friday to halt an Obama administration directive on bathroom rights for transgender students in U.S. public schools. But no immediate ruling was issued even with the first day of school looming in much of the country.

The Obama administration told U.S. public schools in May that transgender students must be allowed to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their chosen gender identity.

• Transgender bathroom rights, access a hot U.S. political topic
• Let transgender kids use the bathroom of their choice, Obama administration tells public schools

That announcement came days after the Justice Department sued North Carolina over a state law that requires people to use public bathrooms that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate which U.S.Attorney General Loretta Lynch had likened to policies of racial segregation. Many Republicans have argued such laws are commonsense privacy safeguards.

Schools were not explicitly told to comply or lose federal funds, but the Obama administration also didn't rule out that possibility in court documents filed in July, saying recipients of federal education dollars "are clearly on notice" that anti-discrimination polices must be followed.

Texas alone gets roughly $10 billion US in federal education funds, and argues along with the 11 other states that they shouldn't potentially lose money over what they criticize as a "massive social experiment."

On Friday,U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor in Fort Worth heard states' arguments that the Obama administration directive was unconstitutional and seeking a preliminary injunction that would temporarily block it meaning schools wouldn't have to worry about complying for now.

• Justin Trudeau promises 'full protection' with transgender rights bill

Federal attorneys countered that there was no basis for the states to sue. O'Connor didn't rule right away and exactly when a decision will come is unknown though it could be coming soon.

The lawsuit was filed in May by Texas, Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah and Georgia, and the Republican governors of Maine, Mississippi and Kentucky.

White House backs transgender bathroom rights

8 years ago

Duration 2:19

Obama administration told U.S. public schools that transgender students must be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice or face funding cuts

Two small school districts in Arizona and Texas, which have fewer than 600 students combined and no transgender persons on their campuses, also joined the effort to prevent the directive from being enforced.

The number of transgender students in U.S. public schools is unclear, but in June, a team of experts estimated that about 1.4 million adults in the country identify as transgender.

That's double the estimate from a decade ago, according to demographer Gary Gates, who worked on the survey with other scholars at the Williams Institute, a think-tank at the UCLA School of Law that specializes in research on issues affecting lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people.