ACLU Comment on Latest Texas Suit Targeting Transgender People

HOUSTON – Today, the State of Texas filed another lawsuit against the federal government over a new regulation intended to protect transgender people against discrimination in the provision of healthcare. Yesterday, a U.S. District Court Judge issued a preliminary injunction against the federal government’s guidance to public school districts regarding their legal responsibility to give transgender students access to restrooms on the same basis as all other students.

The ACLU previously filed a joint amicus brief in the multi-state lawsuit, Texas v. United States.

The following may be attributed to Rebecca L. Robertson, legal and policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas:

“Yesterday Texas’ leaders patted themselves on the back for convincing a federal court that transgender schoolchildren should be excluded from the protections of Title IX. Today, the state filed another suit in the same court, this time challenging federal regulations intended to shield transgender people from discrimination in healthcare services. We don’t know what else the state has in store, but the people of Texas will not stand idly by and let the state make transgender Texans into second-class citizens with no legal recourse when they face stigma and bias. Texas is better than this. This is not who we are.”