Alabama One of 13 States Trying to Block School Transgender Bathroom Order

Attorney General Luther Strange has announced that Alabama is one of 13 states filing a preliminary injunction to block the Obama administration’s recent order that schools must allow students access to restrooms and locker rooms of their gender “identity,” rather than their sex, or lose federal funding.

Strange issued a statement saying Alabama joined the other states in filing the preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court against the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Justice Department, the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, for promoting a federal directive that local schools must allow transgender access to campus restrooms or face a loss of federal funds. The filing included an affidavit from the Alabama Department of Education setting forth the extensive federal funds at risk because of the illegal order and the impact the loss of such funds would have on Alabama’s children.*

“On May 25, I joined a legal challenge to the Obama administration’s restroom mandate,” said Attorney General Strange in his statement. “With schools nearing the beginning of a new year, time is short and school administrators need clarity about the impact of this controversial new order on their school systems. Alabama and the other states are asking the federal court to grant a preliminary injunction of the transgender restroom edict until the court has reached a decision on its legality.

“I believe Alabama and the other states will ultimately prevail in federal court against the new restroom order because federal law allows schools to have separate facilities based on the ‘sex’ of the individual, not their gender preference.”

Alabama joined Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin in filing the motion for a preliminary injunction Tuesday.