Kansas will challenge in court a
directive by the Obama administration advising schools to allow
transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice.
Kansas State Attorney General Derek
Schmidt, a Republican, said in a statement that he has yet to decide
whether to join a lawsuit led by Texas or file a separate lawsuit.
Schmidt said that a decision by the
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that backs a transgender student's
right to use the bathroom of his choice is behind his decision.
(Related: Fourth
Circuit denies rehearing in case of transgender teen.)
“I had hoped the Virginia case could
quickly resolve this issue by confirming the longstanding traditional
understanding that Title IX applies to biological sex, not gender
identity,” he said in a statement. “But today's refusal by the
appeals court in Virginia to reconsider its earlier flawed decision
means our only option is to pursue a more direct challenge to the
Obama administration's unlawful efforts to unilaterally rewrite Title
IX.”
“In our federal system of government,
not every decision needs to be handed down from Washington, and this
is a matter best left to state or local authorities, including school
boards, as it traditionally has been - and as the law requires,”
Schmidt added.