AG Paxton Warns Texas Schools Against Complying with Federal Guidance to Protect LGBTQ+ Students from Discrimination

Citing a federal judge’s recent order, state Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an advisory (press release) to Texas schools on Tuesday warning them that they must not comply with guidance issued by the Biden administration to extend federal anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ+ students.

• Background: U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor‘s June 11 order (Texas Tribune) resulted from a lawsuit Paxton filed against the U.S. Department of Education over nonbinding guidance issued by the department that said the nation’s schools could be denied federal funding for discriminating against students based on their gender identity or sexual orientation, such as by requiring students to use bathrooms and other facilities that correspond to the gender they were assigned at birth.
  
  The judge barred the guidance from being applicable in Texas only.

“This ruling covers all Texas school districts and ensures no district in our State will have to comply with the Biden Administration’s illegitimate interpretation that Title IX includes gender-identity requirements, including allowing men into women’s restrooms, locker rooms, sports teams, or requiring students or teachers to use pronouns based on gender identity rather than biological sex,” Paxton’s advisory says, adding:

“And if any Texas school district adopts a policy or procedure that conflicts with or contravenes state law, then I will pursue every remedy available to protect students and teachers from these illegal and radical policies.”