Mississippi to become 12th state to sue Obama administration over transgender bathrooms

(Image credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

published 26 May 2016

On Thursday, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) announced his intent to join the lawsuit filed by several states against the Obama administration's transgender bathroom directive, Reuters reports. Officials from 11 states filed a suit Wednesday in Texas against the administration over its stipulation that transgender students be allowed to use bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity rather than biological sex. "Our office has talked to the Texas attorney general's office and I intend, as soon as possible, to join the lawsuit against this latest example of federal overreach," Bryant said in a statement. Mississippi's Democratic attorney general Jim Hood has decided not to participate in the lawsuit, Reuters notes.

The lawsuit, filed in Wichita, Texas, specifically accuses the Obama administration of trying to "turn workplace and educational settings across the country into laboratories for a massive social experiment." The states that have currently signed on to Texas' lawsuit are Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana, West Virginia, Utah, and Wisconsin, as well as Arizona's Department of Education and Maine's governor.