States dig in against directive on transgender bathroom use

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Politicians in Texas, Arkansas and elsewhere vowed defiance — and other conservative states could follow suit – after the Obama administration told public schools across the U.S. today to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.

The federal government's guidance was met with tearful praise from parents of transgender students.

"It's heartbreaking that these kids are losing their lives because they can't be accepted," Hope Tyler, who has a transgender son at a Raleigh high school, said in reference to suicides among transgender people. "Somebody has to speak for the kids."

The directive from the U.S. Justice and Education Departments represents an escalation in the fast-moving dispute over what is becoming the civil rights issue of the day.

One by one, conservative political leaders thundered against it and President Barack Obama.

"This is the most-outrageous example yet of the Obama administration forcing its liberal agenda on states that roundly reject it," said Mississippi Republican Gov. Phil Bryant.

The guidance was issued just days after the Justice Department and North Carolina sued each other over a state law requiring transgender people to use the public bathroom that corresponds to the sex on their birth certificate. The law applies to schools and many other places.

While supporters say the measure is needed to protect women and children from sexual predators, the Justice Department and others argue the threat is practically nonexistent and the law discriminatory.