Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Thursday said that he will support North Carolina in its legal battle with the federal government over the controversial new anti-LGBT law.
“I am working with the governor of North Carolina, and we are going to fight back,” Abbott said during his speech at the Texas Republican Convention.
He lamented that “Obama is turning bathrooms into courtroom issues.”
Abbott has been at the forefront of state legal actions against the Obama administration, first as attorney general and now as governor.
He led several states in suing the federal government over President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, and last year the state sued the federal government in an attempt to halt refugee resettlement in Texas. The state also sued the federal government in 2010 in a bid to stop Environmental Protection Agency regulations
This week, Texas Republican officials dove into the national debate about transgender people and bathroom use, as the Department of Justice and the state of North Carolina filed dueling lawsuits over the state law that keeps transgender people from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity. Both Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton have gotten involved in a superintendent’s new policy providing accommodations for transgender students in the Fort Worth school district.
