DALLAS – Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told residents of his state on Friday to ignore the new federal directive that public schools should let transgender students use restrooms that match their gender identity or risk losing federal funding.
He said he has informed superintendents at Texas schools that they shouldn’t enact the policy.
“In Texas, (President Obama) can keep his 30 pieces of silver,” he said on the second day of the Republican Party of Texas state convention. “We will not yield to blackmail from the president of the United States.
“If this doesn’t wake up the parents of Fort Worth, I don’t know what will.”
The question of who can go into which public restroom, based on the gender a person identifies with now or the one they were born with, became national news after North Carolina officials passed a law requiring transgender people to use restrooms that correspond with the sex indicated on their birth certificate.
The issue, which has already come up in a handful of Texas cities, erupted in Fort Worth this week when Patrick called for Fort Worth school Superintendent Kent Scribner’s resignation over guidelines outlining bathroom use, sparking protests on both sides of the issue.
Patrick’s statements came on the second day of the three-day state Republican convention geared toward boosting party unity and building momentum for the November general election.
Thousands of Republicans are gathered at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center for the biennial event where they build enthusiasm for the presidential election, approve party rules and a platform, choose delegates to the national convention and pick a party leader.
The convention wraps up Saturday, when it is expected to feature speeches by U.S. Sen. and former GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Tarrant County Commissioner Andy Nguyen.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn on Friday said Obama shouldn’t be weighing in on the bathroom debate.
“This president just needs to do his job and get out of the way,” he said, adding that he believes “men ought to be able to go to the men’s room and women ought to be able to go to the women’s room.”
Delegates have mixed opinions in the bathroom debate.
“It seems if a person looks like a woman, he should go to the women’s restroom,” said one delegate who declined to give his name. “You can’t look in their underwear.
“People should go to the bathroom of the gender they look like,” he said. “This is crazy.”
The real crazy thing is what Obama is doing, said Flora Hernandez, a delegate from Dallas.
“I think it’s a horrible overreach,” she said. “(Obama is) acting like a totalitarian. He’s acting on things people haven’t had a chance to opine about.
“It scares me, honestly.”
The new federal guidance, sent Friday to public schools across the country from the education and justice departments, says public schools must treat transgender students in the way they identify with gender, even if their birth certificate or other records note a different sex, or the schools risk losing federal funds.
Patrick said Texas will find a way to recoup lost federal funds for districts that don’t abide by the guidance.
“We will not sell out,” Patrick said. “There is no compromise on this issue.”
On Thursday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott publicly weighed in on the issue for the first time, telling thousands of delegates at the state convention that “Obama is turning bathrooms into courtroom issues.”
And he said it’s time for him to get involved.
“I want you to know that I am working with the governor of North Carolina,” he said. “And we are going to fight back.”