More U.S. state leaders raise their voices against Obama's transgender restroom decree: No surrender to 'federal bayonet'

Jose Lara, 34, Dean of Students & GSA Advisor, holds a sign which was part of the campaign for the first gender-neutral restroom in the Los Angeles school district at Santee Education Complex high school in Los Angeles, California, on April 18, 2016.Reuters

The top officials in more than 12 states in America have made known their defiance of President Barack Obama's pro-LGBT "guidance" on the use of restrooms and other facilities in all U.S. public schools.

Unfazed by Washington's threat of the loss of billions of dollars in federal education funding, the state leaders vowed they will never implement the decree "come what may" because it is unconstitutional, LifeSiteNews reports.

Governors, attorneys general, and school officials have joined irate parents in saying that Obama's "social experiment" announced last Friday is a vast overreach of the president's powers and places young children at risk.

North Carolina, which was sued by the federal government over its bathroom privacy law, was among the first states to declare the Obama decree dead on arrival.

Obama's policy is "an invitation for violations of privacy and personal safety," said North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest.

"North Carolina will not stand by and let our locker rooms and high school showers be used for social experimentation at the expense of the privacy and protection of our young boys and girl," he said. "I don't think it appropriate for teenage boys and girls to shower next to each other...I feel confident, the vast majority of North Carolina parents feel the same."

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said his state will never yield despite being threatened with "a federal bayonet."

"Mississippi's public schools should not participate in the president's social experiment. These decisions are better left to the states, and not made at the point of a federal bayonet," he said.

Mississippi Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves said "state and local communities should not be forced to push a liberal agenda by a president out of touch with the American people."

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said his state is willing to lose federal education funding in defying Obama's decree, even if this would deprive students in the state of an estimated $10 billion, much of it in free breakfast and lunch programme.

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin also declared his state's non-compliance of the presidential directive, saying public schools in the Bluegrass State "should not feel compelled to bow to such intimidation."

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert vowed to resist Obama's order.

"Schools are the domain of state and local government, not our nation's president ... If we have to fight this order, we will not hesitate to do so," Herbert said.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson also told school districts in the state to disregard Obama's "guidance," tweeting, "We will fight this directive."

Alabama state Attorney General Luther Strange vowed, "If the Obama administration tries to enforce this absurd edict, I will work with other Attorneys General to challenge it."

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt wrote a letter to the Obama administration Friday afternoon shortly after the guidelines were announced, saying he would "vigorously defend the state's" commonsense solution.

Other states opposing the Obama edict are Arizona, Kansas, Maine, Nebraska and West Virginia, according to LifeSiteNews.