The Restroom Bill of 2016

From the birth of our nation there has never been any need for a bill to legislate which restroom students shall use. I wrote and filed the restroom bill to ensure that students have privacy when using the restroom at their public school; biological girls will use the girls’ room and biological boys will use the boys’ room.  I wrote the bill  because Barak Obama’s restroom directive was in the works – a directive from the US Dept of Education to force school districts to allow any student who claimed to be transgender to use the restroom of their choice. 
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That is unacceptable to me and to most Tennesseans. My bill was designed to prevent the directive, which is not law but edict, from being applied in Tennessee schools. 

Note that my bill did not apply to private businesses like Target - but to public schools in Tennessee.  The bill filed last year was the language from my bill but it was not passed by the legislators.  

However, as a result of my bill, the ACLU found a plaintiff in Sumner County (a county I represented for eight years) and the ACLU served notice of their intent to sue if my bill passed. 
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To set the scene, at the time, socialists Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were running for President on the Democrat ticket, and several Republican candidates, including Donald Trump, were running on the Republican ticket. And tragically, during the course of running my bill, Judge Antonin Scalia died putting the future of the Supreme Court in grave question. 

We legislators had no idea what kind of future our nation faced but we did know this; Nashville is not a friendly venue for the ACLU’s case. So if a lawsuit was filed we would lose the first round. Upon losing, by court order, every single school district in the state of Tennessee would be FORCED TO ALLOW students who call themselves transgender to use the restroom of their choosing. In fact, this order would stand until a final ruling by the Supreme Court.
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With the Presidency in question, with Judge Scalia’s death and the balance of the SCOTUS in question, with a threatened lawsuit putting every student in our state in jeopardy – I prayerfully, tearfully, frighteningly choose another route and MY GOD who urged me, stood with me. We would go on the offense and challenge the Obama administration because they have no right to make any edict and especially not the restroom directive. 
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It is true, few understood my decision. Politically it was stupid what politician would not pass such a bill in an election year? Certainly the best decision for me to make would have been to pass my bill and take all the glory for myself. However, I love the children of our state more than any seat so I chose the best course for the students – not the best course for me personally. 
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Perhaps you may recall, that I was faced with a similar choice in 2010 of whether to put others before myself – and I chose to put others first at that time too. 
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So in 2016, Tennessee went on the offense in a friendly court venue; when Texas filed suit against the Obama bathroom directive Tennessee joined the suit and WE WON. 
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On Sunday, August 21, 2016, a federal judge in Texas sided with Texas and 12 other states including Tennessee agreeing that the administration’s restroom directive policy usurps local control and threatens students’ safety and privacy.
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When the decision came down I made the follow statement; 
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“Tennessee delayed passage of my legislation so that we could become a party to this lawsuit, and I am delighted that Tennessee was successful with our case. I am also extremely pleased that this ruling proves that the strategy to delay passage of the restroom bill has clearly proven to be the right course of action for Tennessee.
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First, this ruling means that Tennessee schools can feel comfortable about ignoring the Obama Administration’s restroom directive - which as the Governor and Republicans said from the outset, does not have the force of law because it was not created according to law or administrative procedure.
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Second, the Justice stated that his ruling does not apply to disputes that are already in court, which includes the cases in North Carolina and Virginia. 
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However, because Tennessee never gave the opportunity for the ACLU to sue us this also means that the ruling perfectly applies to Tennessee because we have not been sued in court. This could have turned out very differently for Tennessee because had we passed my bill we know that we would have been sued in court by the ACLU and this ruling would not have applied to us – that would have been tragic.
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Third, as stated in the decision, the ruling also does not apply to schools that already accommodate transgender students’ choice of restrooms. Tennessee schools have always supported biological identity for restroom use. Any student who claims to be transgender is offered a private, safe and secure alternative so Tennessee students are safe.
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I think Tennessee played our hand very well. Now it is up to the voters to make the right choice in November because we know that a second Clinton Administration would aggressively pursue violating the privacy rights of biological boys and girls in our schools regardless of what the local school district decides is best for students.”
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Let me repeat these points; because we won the lawsuit in Texas, Tennessee schools could do what they have always done and that is have students who do not feel comfortable in the bathroom for their biological sex use a private restroom designated for them. 
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Had Tennessee been in a lawsuit, the Texas ruling destroying the Obama restroom directive WOULD NOT HAVE APPLIED TO TENNESSEE
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Had Tennessee already lost a lawsuit and a judge forced transgender bathrooms upon Tennessee, the Texas ruling destroying the Obama restroom directive WOULD NOT HAVE APPLIED TO TENNESSEE
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Praise God that Donald Trump won in November, 2016; after being sworn into office it only took him a few weeks to tear up the Obama Restroom directive – so it is no more. 
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If I am wrong and the Obama directive is not dead why didn’t any lawmaker in Tennessee file a restroom bill this year?
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I have protected every child in Tennessee including my six precious grandchildren. With Gods help WE DEFEATED THE OBAMA RESTROOM DIRECTIVE IN TENNESSEE! 
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Every day I pray for wisdom and trust my Lord and savior. He carries me every day. I am His servant and I listen to Him – not to you.