One of the most contentious issues facing this new school year is which bathrooms and locker rooms transgender students will be allowed to use.
The Obama administration has issued what it calls guidance that students be allowed to use facilities consistent with their gender identity. The administration warned that schools refusing to do that could risk their federal school funding.
In Texas on Monday a federal judge blocked that policy in a case brought by 13 states, including Oklahoma. Attorney General Scott Pruitt says the state joined the lawsuit because the guidance letter showed Oklahoma wasn’t in compliance with the new federal guidelines, which put Title IX funds used for both K-12 and higher education at risk.
“In Oklahoma that's about 10-12 percent of our education funding,” Pruitt told NPR’s Morning Edition. “There was a substantial amount of revenue that was at issue in this case and put at risk for the state of Oklahoma.”
Pruitt says the guidance letter reimagined a definition of “sex” that historically has meant the gender assigned at birth. Instead of biological or anatomical, it’s now tied to internal sense of identity, and Pruitt says that could change day-to-day or week-to-week.
“There's so much focus on the bathroom aspect of this significant guidance. It's more than that,” Pruitt said. “It's locker rooms. It's participation in sporting events. It's housing on college campuses. This is a significant, far-reaching decision that was made by the Justice Department and the Department of Education, and I'm glad the court stepped in in Texas to assist the states with clarity.”
Pruitt says districts in Oklahoma and across the country now have latitude and flexibility to decide what’s best at the local level.
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