States Join NC in Battle over Obama’s Transgender Bathroom Mandate

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WASHINGTON (ChurchMilitant.com) - Texas and 12 other states are joining in the battle with North Carolina against President Obama's encroachment on transgender "bathroom laws."

Texas Attorney General (AG) Ken Paxton is joining with AG's from Arkansas, Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, West Virginia, Utah and the governors of Kentucky and Mississippi. They filed a brief in federal court on August 31 to block a U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) challenge to North Carolina's House Bill 2 (HB2).

Enacted on March 24, HB2 determines "transgender" people must use the bathroom coinciding with the sex on their birth certificate, not as they outwardly portray themselves.

The Obama administration responded on May 4 with a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice, warning, "[W]e have concluded that ... the State is engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination against its employees and both you and the State are engaged in a pattern or practice of resistance to the full enjoyment of ... rights by employees of public agencies."

The DOJ filed a lawsuit in federal court asking U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder to "issue a preliminary and permanent injunction to prevent further violations of federal law," which would block North Carolina from enforcing HB2.

On May 13, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Education (DOE) issued a joint letter prohibiting sex discrimination in schools, expanding the word "sex" to encompass "gender identity."

A federal judge in Texas had ruled on August 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."

Despite the Texas ruling, Judge Schroeder blocked the enforcement of HB2 at the University of North Carolina in a separate case brought by LGBT-friendly students and faculty of the university. He ruled that the "wholesale ban on access to facilities is inconsistent with DOE's guidance on Title IX compliance."

He referenced a Fourth Circuit Court ruling that maintained the Obama administration's interpretation of "sex" as "gender identity" is permissible. Yet even before the Texas ruling, the administration's own attorneys maintained the DOJ and DOE directive is "not legally binding."

Paxton and the others are asking Judge Schroeder to halt the lawsuit against the state in light of the Texas ruling.

The Catholic Church has clearly maintained its position against the push for gender identity rights, with Pope Benedict XVI declaring in 2012, "The profound falsehood of this theory and of the anthropological revolution contained within it is obvious."

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