FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PHOENIX - The Arizona Department of Education and the Heber-Overgaared Unified School District, along with officials in 10 other states, today announced legal action against the Obama administration following the federal executive branch's recent release of guidance on how schools should treat transgender students. The Arizona plaintiffs are represented by Attorney General Mark Brnovich.
Alessandra Soler, executive director of the ACLU of Arizona, had the following reaction:
"With this shameful attack on transgender young people, Arizona has yet again identified itself as a place where the most powerful willingly target society’s most vulnerable for discrimination. Transgender people simply want to live their lives free from discrimination when they go to school, work or the restroom. Their right to live free from discrimination does not undermine anyone’s privacy or safety."
James Esseks, director of the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and HIV Project, said:
“This lawsuit is an attack from eleven states on transgender Americans, plain and simple.
“There have been no disruptions, increases in public safety incidents, nor invasions of privacy related to protections for transgender people. The federal agencies named in this lawsuit have not changed existing obligations under the law. Our civil rights laws, including Title VII and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, have long prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex, and federal courts and agencies have long recognized that this includes protections for transgender people.
If these attorneys general disagree with the agency’s interpretation of what the federal ban on sex discrimination means, they can make that argument to the court when it arises in a real case. This lawsuit is a political stunt.”
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