Texas governor compares transgender bathroom issue to moon landing
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has waded into the national debate over transgender bathroom use by comparing the White House’s commitment to LGBT rights to U.S. space exploration.
“JFK wanted to send a man to the moon. Obama wants to send a man to the women’s restroom,” Abbott tweeted on Tuesday morning shortly after the president issued a statement marking the 13th annual International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. “We must get our country back on track.”
At last week’s Texas GOP convention in Dallas, Abbott and his fellow Longhorn State Republicans said they were prepared to stand with North Carolina, which recently passed a bill limiting bathroom access for transgender people.
“Obama is turning bathrooms into courtroom issues,” Abbott told attendees. “I want you to know, I am working with the governor of North Carolina, and we are going to fight back.”
He added: “Our country is in crisis, and Texas must lead the way forward.”
Earlier this month, the U.S. Justice Department warned North Carolina that its controversial law is discriminatory. The legislation requires people to use public restrooms that correspond to the gender on their birth certificates.
Days later, North Carolina filed suit against the Justice Department for what Gov. Pat McCrory called “a baseless and blatant overreach” of government based on a “radical reinterpretation” of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In turn, the Justice Department filed suit against North Carolina on the same day.
“They created state-sponsored discrimination against transgender individuals who simply seek to engage in the most private of functions in a place of safety and security,” U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said at a news conference announcing the countersuit. “None of us can stand by when a state enters the business of legislating identity and insists that a person pretend to be something or someone that they are not.”
A similar legal battle could soon be waged in Texas.
As the Guardian reports, Abbott, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, likes to tout his record of frequently suing the Obama administration. As state attorney general, he did so around 30 times.
But the White House isn’t likely to back down anytime soon.
Last Thursday, the administration sent a letter ordering all public schools to allow transgender students access to restrooms that match their identities.
“A school may provide separate facilities on the basis of sex, but must allow transgender students access to such facilities consistent with their gender identity,” the letter reads. “A school may not require transgender students to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity or to use individual-user facilities when other students are not required to do so.”
In his statement on the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, Obama reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to advancing LGBT rights.
“There is much work to be done to combat homophobia and transphobia, both at home and abroad,” Obama said. “In too many places, LGBT individuals grow up forced to conceal or deny who they truly are for fear of persecution, discrimination, and violence. All nations and all communities can, and must, do better.”
