LUBBOCK, Texas -
The battle over the rights of transgender students has now reached Texas.
Lt. Governor Dan Patrick has called on Fort Worth ISD's superintendent to resign over a new policy. It allows transgender students to use the bathroom and locker room of their choice.
Teachers must also address students by pronouns matching their gender identity.
"In this case," Patrick said, "the superintendent is putting the privacy and comfort and the rights of 78 or 79,000 in the back seat, for a few."
Meanwhile, LGBT advocates say Patrick should "stay out of people's bathrooms."
"Our lieutenant governor has decided to pick on an already bullied group of kids for political gain," said Texas Equality Chairman Steve Rudner. "That's the news of the day, that's the only news of the day. It is shameful and it is despicable."
Fort Worth ISD's superintendent Kent Scribner says he will not resign and that he is proud of the new policy.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton would not comment in Lubbock Tuesday on the situation in Fort Worth.
He has, however, supported North Carolina's governor in the battle with the Justice Department over the state's so-called "bathroom bill."
"We're trying to make sure that if all these changes are being done by businesses, that we're taking care of our most vulnerable and that there's not inappropriate or illegal or unhelpful or unwanted behavior going on in these bathrooms once these rules are put into place," Paxton said.
The legal showdown sets the stage for a possible Supreme Court ruling on whether transgender people should be a protected class under Title IV.
