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GOP legislators support Kinder’s letter to Obama

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Over 100 Missouri legislators signed on supporting Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder’s denunciation of President Barack Obama’s May 13 “Dear Colleague” letter directing schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their preferred gender.

Twenty Republican senators and 88 representatives signed on to the effort for Obama to rescind the letter, which Kinder says is a “blatant attempt to change established law.

“The letter puts Missouri public schools in the unjust position of having to chose between either doing what they know is best for their particular student population or receiving federal funding,” Kinder wrote Tuesday. “Missouri schools must not be forced to comply with this extra-constitutional decree and the practical implications it would have on their operations and on their students.”

Lt. Gov. Kinder
Lt. Gov. Kinder

Kinder is currently running for governor. Other gubernatorial candidates like Eric Greitens and even Democratic nominee Attorney General Chris Koster have also called the directive either an overreach  of Obama’s executive privilege or one written too unilaterally.

However, Koster sided with the school districts and courts that were “recognizing the needs of transgender students with respect, dignity and fairness.”

The president has yet to respond to Kinder’s request.

Kinder’s letter is part of an ongoing national debate over whether transgender people should be required to use the bathroom of the sex on their birth certificate as a law passed in North Carolina would dictate. Opponents of such the “bathroom bill,” like the Obama administration whose Justice Department is suing North Carolina for that law, contend that transgender people should have the ability to use the restroom of their chosen gender.