Panhandle Equality Chair Jeff Leanna released a statement Thursday condemning the Trump administration’s reversal of an Obama-era guidance allowing transgender students to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.

“Panhandle Equality stands with our transgender children and strongly admonishes the White House, Department of Justice, and Department of Education decision to reverse the landmark Title IX guidance which protected the human rights of transgender students to use the bathroom which matches their gender identity,” Leanna said in the statement. “This cruel decision will lead to bullying and violence against our transgender youth. In Nebraska, there are no laws which specifically protect our LGBT children from bullying and violence. Gender identity is not protected by any laws in Nebraska, including hate crime laws. Let me be crystal clear, teen suicides will rise and children will die as a result of this decision.”

Former President Obama had issued the guidance to public schools last May, threatening to withhold funding for schools that did not comply. As a result, 23 states filed lawsuits, and White House spokesman Sean Spicer said during a press conference Wednesday that the administration was pressured to reverse the decision due to a pending U.S. Supreme Court case.

Transgender is defined as a person whose gender identity is different from that typically associated with their assigned sex at birth. Gender identity is defined as each person’s deeply felt, internal knowledge of their own gender. In 2015, 54 children and young adults committed suicide in Nebraska, and estimates provided by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center show that 40 percent of LGBT children have attempted suicide — a rate four times higher than average for all children.