Federal lawsuit challenges Oklahoma anti-trans bathroom law

By SEAN MURPHY
Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Civil rights groups have filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of three transgender Oklahoma schoolchildren against the state’s new anti-transgender school bathroom bill. The lawsuit filed in federal district court in Oklahoma City on Tuesday argues that the law requiring students to use only the bathroom of the sex listed on their birth certificate is unconstitutional. Defendants include the State Department of Education and its board members, Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, Attorney General John O’Connor and three school districts as defendants. Oklahoma is among about a dozen conservative states that have passed laws this year targeting the transgender population over bathroom use, participation in school sports and gender-affirming treatments or surgery for young people.