US states sue Obama administration over transgender bathroom order

WASHINGTON - As many as 11 US states, nine of which run by Republican governors, sued the Obama administration on Wendesday to stop a new federal guidance requiring all public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms and other facilities that align with their gender identities, media here reported.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the lawsuit Wednesday on Twitter. In a news conference on the day, he accused the US federal government of overreach, saying that it was issuing guidance on matters that should be dealt with by Congress.

The formal complaint was filed in the US District Court Northern District of Texas on behalf of what it refers to as "a diverse coalition of States, top State officials, and local school districts, spanning from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes, and from the Grand Canyon to the Grand Isle," said a NBC news report.

Along with the state of Texas, plaintiffs include Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah, Georgia, Maine Gov. Paul LePage, the Arizona Department of Education, and two individual school districts in Arizona and Texas, according to the report.

"Defendants have conspired to turn workplaces 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," states the complaint, claiming this guidance "has no basis in law".

"Absent action in Congress, the States, or local communities, Defendants cannot foist these radical changes on the nation." the lawsuit states.

There has been an intensifying standoff between the Obama administration and the Republican-run state of North Carolina, which passed a state law in March banning transgender people from using public bathrooms corresponding to their gender identities. North Carolina and the Department of Justice sued each other earlier this month, each taking an opposing position on whether the law violates national laws against discrimination.

A school, the Obama administration has argued, must not treat a transgender student differently from the way it treats other students of the same gender identity and holds an obligation "to provide transgender students equal access to educational programs and activities even in circumstances in which other students, parents or community members raise objections or concerns."

"The desire to accommodate others' discomfort cannot justify a policy that singles out and disadvantages a particular class of students," said the highly-disputed guidance issued by the Departments of Justice and Education jointly on May 13.