Shame, Trauma, and Confusion as Judge Blocks Obama's Trans Bathroom Order

Hours before the start of the new school year, a federal judge issued a national injunction against the Obama administration directive requiring public schools to grant transgender students access to facilities consistent with their gender identity.

“Late Sunday order to make sure Trans kids start off the school year with shame & trauma,” Chase Strangio, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wrote on Twitter, responding to the news.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled in favor of 13 states, which sued to block the protective policy guidance after it was issued last May.

The Houston-based O’Connor, an appointee of President George W. Bush, ruled that the administration failed to follow proper legal procedure issuing the directive.

“This case presents the difficult issue of balancing the protection of students’ rights and that of personal privacy when using school bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and other intimate facilities, while ensuring that no student is unnecessarily marginalized while attending school,” O’Connor wrote. “The resolution of this difficult policy issue is not, however, the subject of this Order. Instead, the Constitution assigns these policy choices to the appropriate elected and appointed officials, who must follow the proper legal procedure.”

The ruling stipulates that the injunction pertains only to those states “whose laws direct separation.” In addition to Texas, the other plaintiffs in Texas v. United States include: Harrold Independent School District in Texas; the Arizona Department of Education; the Heber-Overgaard Unified School District in Arizona; Wisconsin; Maine Governor Paul LePage; Kentucky; Mississippi; Oklahoma; Louisiana; Alabama; Georgia; Tennessee; West Virginia; and Utah.