Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and officials in 10 other states filed a lawsuit Wednesday over President Obama’s transgender bathroom directive, Reuters reports.
{mosads}The lawsuit, filed in a federal district court in Northern Texas, goes after, among others, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education over the directive, accusing them of turning workplaces and schools “into laboratories for a massive social experiment.”
Obama’s directive, sent out earlier this month, tells public schools they should allow transgender students to use bathrooms that match their gender identities or face losing federal aid for breaching Title IX requirements.
It has faced backlash from conservatives who call the move an executive overreach.
The other states leading the legal challenge are: Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah and Georgia, along with the Arizona Department of Education, the governor of Maine and school districts in Arizona and Texas.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott confirmed Wednesday that the state would be challenging the move.
“If President Obama thinks he can bully Texas schools into allowing men to have open access to girls in bathrooms, he better prepare for yet another legal fight,” Paxton said in a statement earlier this month.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said at the time he believes Title IX doesn’t cover people who are transgender.
“It was about not discriminating against race, color, religion and sex — the sex that you are, not the sex that you think you are,” Patrick said.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Steve King (R-Iowa) also oppose the directive, among others.
Louisiana and West Virginia are the only states in the lawsuit with Democratic governors.
— Updated at 5 p.m.