The Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick (R) said Tuesday that he will send letters to the 1,200 school districts in the state, directing superintendents to ignore the federal directive to allow transgender students to use whatever bathroom or locker room corresponds with their gender identity.
Texas is among one of the 11 states that is suing the federal government concerning the directive handed down to U.S. public schools earlier this month. Other states standing alongside Texas are Oklahoma, Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Maine, Arizona, Louisiana, Utah, and Georgia.
Patrick said that the state is willing to surrender billions of dollars in federal funding for education rather than comply, and that Texas will support any school system that chooses to refute the federal directive to cater to students’ gender identities.
“This is going to be litigated in the courts for a long time,” Patrick told reporters at the Capitol during a morning news conference.
His announcement was followed by angry protests from the parents of transgender students, demanding rights for their children.
“You, specifically you, are endangering my child’s life. You have now told everyone in the state of Texas it is okay to harass my child,” said Ann Elder, a mother of a 10-year-old transgender child near Houston.
Patrick said, “Transgender students deserve the rights of anyone else. It does not mean they get to use the girls’ room if they’re a boy.”
