The federal edict requiring schools to allow transgendered students to use the bathrooms of their choice was under fire from a number of state leaders, some of whom have already begun to push back. Eight states — West Virginia, Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Maine and North Carolina — have signed on to challenge a federal appeals court ruling in a dispute in which the Obama administration used the same logic for its edict to schools as the foundation for the legal argument requiring a Virginia school to allow a transgendered student access to female locker rooms.

In addition to those states, leaders across the nation reacted to the letter Friday that told schools they must follow federal guidance or risk civil rights lawsuits and the possible withdrawal of federal aid. Here is a sampling of nine states fighting back, two of which — Texas and North Carolina — are also fighting back in the lawsuit challenging the federal action in Virginia that was a precursor to the letter to all the nation’s schools. READ MORE


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