ANDREW DeMILLO

LITTLE ROCK - Arkansas lawmakers joined with the state’s Republican governor Wednesday in urging public schools to disregard an Obama administration directive that they must permit transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity.

The Arkansas Legislative Council approved a nonbinding resolution supporting Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s criticism of the guidance from the federal departments of Justice and Education. The agencies said last week that schools are obligated to treat transgender students in a way that matches their gender identity, even if their education records or identity documents indicate a different sex.

The council, which approved the resolution by a voice vote, is the Legislature’s main governing body when lawmakers aren’t in session.

Voters ‘are angry’

“Our constituents are angry at this attempt by the federal government to push this social experimentation on our children,” Republican Rep. Stephen Meeks, who introduced the resolution, told the council.

The guidance does not impose any new legal requirements. But officials said it’s meant to clarify expectations of school districts that receive funding from the federal government. Arkansas has received $432 million in federal funds for its public schools in the fiscal year ending June 30, according to the state Department of Finance and Administration.

Hutchinson last week called the guidance “offensive, intrusive and totally lacking in common sense.”

Democrats respond

Democrats criticized the resolution and accused Republicans of focusing on the wrong issues.

“There are sensitive issues being discussed in today’s world and it will take some time for everyone to fully understand them,” House Minority Leader Michael John Gray, a Democrat from Augusta, said in a statement before the vote. “Heated rhetoric and discrimination have never solved any issue.”

Democratic Rep. Greg Leding, who voted against the resolution, also criticized the message it sends to transgender youth.

“I do want to say to any trans youth in the state, whether you’re here in Little Rock or the smallest town in Arkansas, there are those of us here in Arkansas who support you and respect you,” Leding said.

The resolution also called on the federal government to drop its challenge of a North Carolina law that directs transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds with the sex on their birth certificate. The Arkansas Legislature is set to meet Thursday for a special session focusing on highway funding, but Meeks said he’s not working on legislation similar to North Carolina’s.

“If it becomes an issue within the state where we start to see a lot of confusion among the school districts, then as representatives of the people, obviously we’ll debate it,” Meeks said.