Clinton, Miss. (AP) – Mississippi’s Board of Education is falling in line with state Republican political leaders’ opposition to federal guidance on transgender students’ use of bathrooms and locker rooms. On May 24, the board voted 9-0 to “to support the position of the state leadership regarding the recent release of the federal guidance letter” after a two-hour-plus closed discussion.
The move came after state Superintendent Carey Wright came under sharp criticism for the Department of Education’s initial stance that Mississippi would follow the federal guidance calling for transgender students to be treated consistently with the gender they currently identify as. Officials cited a need for a “safe and caring school environment.” Days later, Wright retracted that statement, saying the department would take no action until discussion with board members.
Majorities of the state House and Senate signed letters demanding that the board oppose the federal position, and Gov. Phil Bryant called for the state to defy the guidance. Some letters called for Wright to be disciplined or fired.
Wright took no questions May 24. Board Chairman John Kelly of Gulfport said the board has “full confidence” in her.
“If you look at everything that’s happening in this state from an education standpoint…everything is going in the right direction,” he said of Wright’s leadership.
Kelly said it was legal for the board to discuss the subject behind closed doors because of possible future litigation.
In a new law allowing religious groups and some private businesses to deny services to gay and transgender people or unmarried parents, Mississippi lawmakers declared that people have an “immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth.”
“I think that the Legislature in the last session may have had some very pointed ideas about the whole idea of gender and how gender should be handled,” Kelly said. “And of course, that’s the guidance we’re referring to.”
House Speaker Philip Gunn, (R-Clinton) was the primary author of that law, House Bill 1523, which takes effect July 1. Monday, Gunn and 74 other members of the 122-member House wrote a letter to board members describing the guidance as “an attempt to push an agenda that has the potential to harm our children.”
“We demand that the state Board of Education resist all attempts to put boys and girls into the same bathrooms or locker facilities,” the House members wrote.
Last week, 27 Republican state senators among the GOP’s 32-member supermajority wrote to Wright and the board calling for “swift and decisive action on this urgent matter,” accusing federal officials of trying to “blackmail” Mississippi.
Bryant’s twitter account said he applauds the board for “reversing the unilateral decision of the state superintendent and recognizing that going along with the Obama administration’s social experiment would have been harmful to school children and damaging to the process of educating them.”
Gunn said in a statement that he was pleased with the board’s decision. “I am proud to say we’ll stand against the edict out of Washington that would allow boys and girls to use the same restroom and locker room,” he said.
Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves said the board made “the right decision for Mississippi kids.”
Supporters of gay and transgender rights say opposition by Bryant and lawmakers is wrongheaded, saying that it’s the state’s tiny transgender population that’s at risk of harm if Mississippi doesn’t follow federal guidelines.
“The board’s deplorable action exacerbates risks to transgender students by creating a hostile environment in one of the places young people should feel safest,” Human Rights Campaign state director Rob Hill said in a statement.
Kelly said Mississippi would rely on the discretion of officials in its 144 local districts.
“School districts have dealt with that effectively,” Kelly said. “There’s no reason for me or my colleagues to believe that school districts won’t continue to handle that.”
He also expressed confidence that the more than $700 million a year that Mississippi gets in federal education aid is not currently at risk. Federal dollars make up more than 30 percent of the budgets of districts serving the state’s poorest populations.
