US government sued by eleven states over transgender bathroom policy

The lawsuit announced on Wednesday includes Oklahoma, Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Maine, Arizona, Louisiana, Utah and Georgia. The challenge asks a judge to declare the White House’s 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 common sense policies protecting children and basic privacy rights,” the lawsuit reads.

Many of the conservative states involved had previously called the guidance a threat to safety, the Guardian reports. On the other hand, they themselves have been accused of discrimination by supporters of transgender rights.

“There is no room in our schools for discrimination,” US attorney general Loretta Lynch said.

In Oklahoma, state lawmakers immediately introduced a bill that would force schools to make bathrooms available to religious students that banned transgender individuals.

Texas’ lieutenant governor has previously said the state is willing to forfeit €9 billion in federal education dollars rather than comply with the directive.

According to the Guardian, republican Texas attorney general Ken Paxton said “there’s not a lot of research” when asked if he knew of any cases where child safety was threatened due to transgender bathrooms. He said his office has heard from concerned parents but didn’t say how many. What is more, he said he did not meet with any parents of transgender students before filing the lawsuit.

The lawsuit makes no mention of any incidents that stemmed from the administration’s directive