States Fire Back Against Transgender Guidelines
CABRERA: Well, it might not be the law, but the debate is heating up over the Obama administration's transgender bathroom guidelines. These guidelines say schools should allow transgender students to use the restrooms or locker rooms based on the gender in which they identify. The government has even threatened to withhold Title 9 funding for schools that do not follow the guidelines. Opponents say this is the government going way too far. Here's CNN'S Nick Valencia.</s>LT. GOV. DAN PATRICK (R), TEXAS: We will not yield to blackmail from the President of the United States.</s>NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The federal government calls them guidelines, but several states, including Texas, see them more as a threat.</s>PATRICK: This goes against the values of so many people. It has nothing to do with anyone being against the transgender child.</s>VALENCIA: At a Friday morning press conference, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick says, a line has been crossed by the federal government after the Department of Justice sent a letter on transgender bathroom use in public schools across the United States.</s>PATRICK: I'm telling all the superintendents in Texas right now, you have about three weeks left of the school year. Do not enact this policy.</s>VALENCIA: In the letter, Attorney General Loretta Lynch writes, there is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex. Under the guidelines, public schools that receive federal money are obligated to treat students consistent with their gender identity, even if the records indicate a different sex. Access sex segregated facilities consistent with the student's gender identity and protect a student's privacy related to their transgender status. The actions sets the stage for a legal battle that's been in the making since March. House Bill 2 in North Carolina began the recent controversy. The law requires trans people to use the public restroom related to the gender on their birth certificate, not how they identify. Candis Cox has been one of the most outspoken against the law, she's a transgender woman, and has met with the North Carolina governor.</s>CANDIS COX, TRANSGENDER ACTIVIST: The fact that we are not talking about transgender people and who they are, but rather we don't want someone who looks like a man or looks like a woman but identifies as the opposite gender, it lets me know that we're still discriminating on esthetics.</s>VALENCIA: North Carolina and the Feds have traded accusations and lawsuits, some states including Arkansas and Texas insist there's been government overreach. The Feds say, civil rights have been violated.</s>GOV. PAT MCCRORY (R), NORTH CAROLINA: This is not just a North Carolina issue. This is now a national issue.</s>VALENCIA: The guidance is the most detailed outline given by the Federal government regarding what they think should happen with transgender bathroom use, and earlier today in a commencement address, head of the civil rights division or the Department of Justice seemed to double down on those comments saying in part, efforts like House Bill 2 in North Carolina not only violates the laws that govern our nation, but also the values that define us as people -- Ana.</s>CABRERA: All right, Nick Valencia reporting, thank you. Just ahead, a former American vice president is telling us voters will likely choose Donald Trump to be the next president.</s>DAN QUAYLE, 44TH VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I do think he can win. I think he can win because this is clearly the year of the antiestablishment, if you will. So, if you want more of the same, Republicans or Democrats, more of the political mess in Washington, I mean, you got the quintessential establishment candidate in Hillary Clinton --</s>CABRERA: Dan Quayle explains why he's taking the opposite view of his former boss, President Bush 41, next.