Twenty states are working to block President Joe Biden’s transgender mandate tied to schools, which effectively allows biological boys who identify as female to compete in girls sports and for transgender youths to use locker room and bathroom facilities in accordance with their preferred “gender identity” as opposed to their biological sex, among other issues.
On Monday, a coalition of 20 states sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Education (DOE) over the mandate, with Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery leading the way.
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia have joined the lawsuit.
Slatery argued in a statement that “this case is about two federal agencies changing law, which is Congress’ exclusive prerogative.”
Fox News reported:
The DOE and EEOC had issued guidance stating that, based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which said employers cannot terminate workers because of their gender identity or sexuality, that not recognizing a person’s gender identity would also constitute actionable discrimination under Title VII.
The lawsuit argues that Bostock was a “narrow decision” that was limited to employment termination and “did not address the myriad other forms of alleged discrimination” the agencies identified as prohibited discrimination under Title VII, like sex-segregated bathrooms and sports teams.
The guidance, the lawsuit argues, “purports to resolve highly controversial and localized issues such as whether employers and schools may maintain sex-separated showers and locker rooms, whether schools must allow biological males to compete on female athletic teams, and whether individuals may be compelled to use another person’s preferred pronouns.
“But the agencies have no authority to resolve those sensitive questions, let alone to do so by executive fiat without providing any opportunity for public participation,” it states.
Last month, pediatricians and other health care workers joined to sue the Biden administration over the “gender identity” expansion tied to health care, which would, according to the suit, require medical professionals to provide gender-related services and surgeries despite objections, medical or otherwise.
Objections, even concerning the treatment of children, would be considered “discrimination,” pursuant to Biden’s reinterpretation of sex to include sexual orientation and “gender identity.”
“The American College of Pediatricians, the Catholic Medical Association, and an OB-GYN doctor who specializes in caring for adolescents filed suit in federal court to challenge a Biden administration mandate requiring doctors to perform gender transition procedures on any patient, including a child, if the procedure violates a doctor’s medical judgment or religious beliefs,” read a press release from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reinterpreted non-discrimination on the basis of sex in the Affordable Care Act to include gender identity and thus require gender transition interventions, services, surgeries, and drugs on demand, even for children, no matter a doctor’s medical judgment, religious beliefs, or conscientious objection,” ADF claimed.
In a statement, ADF Senior Counsel Ryan Bangert slammed the Biden administration for “grossly overreaching its authority” and called the mandate flatly “unlawful.”
“The law and the medical profession have long recognized and respected the biological differences between boys and girls and the unique needs they each present in health care. Forcing doctors to prescribe transition hormones for 13-year-olds or perform life-altering surgeries on adolescents is unlawful, unethical, and dangerous,” Bangert said. “President Biden’s Health and Human Services department is grossly overreaching its authority and, in so doing, putting children’s psychological and physical health in danger. Our clients are rightfully objecting on medical, ethical, religious, and conscientious grounds to this unlawful government mandate to provide gender-transition procedures.”
Immediately after being sworn into office, Biden signed an Executive Order broadening sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
“Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports,” the EO stated. “Adults should be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted, or mistreated because of whom they go home to or because how they dress does not conform to sex-based stereotypes. People should be able to access healthcare and secure a roof over their heads without being subjected to sex discrimination.”
Related: 3,000-Plus Pediatricians, Medical Professionals Sue Biden Admin Over Transgender Mandate
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