by WorldTribune Staff, September 2, 2016
Texas is among 13 states defending North Carolina’s law that determined people must use public restrooms based on their birth gender.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and attorney generals from Arkansas, Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, West Virginia, Utah and the governors of Kentucky and Mississippi filed a brief in federal court on Aug. 31 to block a U.S. Justice Department challenge to North Carolina’s House Bill 2 (HB2).
Meanwhile, the state of New York and dozens of companies have filed amicus briefs attacking North Carolina’s law.
On May 13, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education issued a joint letter prohibiting sex discrimination in schools, expanding the word “sex” to encompass “gender identity.”
A federal judge in Texas ruled on Aug. 22 that the administration’s use of the word “sex” is wrong, declaring the term strictly to mean “the biological and anatomical differences between male and female students as determined at their birth.”
The states also argue the North Carolina proceedings should be halted temporarily because of that ruling and a Virginia case that the U.S. Supreme Court may hear.
The law requires transgender people to use restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates, not their gender identity, in schools and many public buildings.