Ten more states sue US Government over trans bathroom rules
Ten more states sued the US federal government on Friday over being required to allow trans students to use gender-appropriate bathrooms.
The Obama administration has intervened on LGBT rights this month after a string of laws attempted to roll back LGBT discrimination protections, purportedly to stop trans people from going to the bathroom.
The federal government wrote to every school in the US to advise them that they are obliged not to discriminate against trans people.
However, that hasn’t gone down well with hard-right Republicans – with GOP politicians in Oklahoma attempting to impeach Obama.
The ten states filed a lawsuit in federal court in Nebraska, and as well as that state, also included Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming.
The Attorney General in Nebraska, Doug Peterson, said the Education and Justice Departments should have used a different route to change a law.
“It also supersedes local school districts’ authority to address student issues on an individualized, professional and private basis,” Peterson said statement.
The Attorney General of Michigan, Bill Schuette, said the Obama Administration had demonstrated “another … federal overreach”.
“This lawsuit is about children and our schools,” he added.
This legal action comes after eleven states earlier this year filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Obama administration.
Officials in eleven states including Texas were included in the complaint filed in May.
As well as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, officials from Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Arizona, Oklahoma, Maine, Louisiana, Utah and Georgia were all named in the complaint.
