President Barack Obama's directive that transgender students be allowed to use the bathroom and locker room of the gender they identify with has created a lot of controversy.
So much so that Texas, along with 10 other states, filed a lawsuit challenging the president's order.
Arkansas' attorney general announced Thursday that the Natural State might join in. Gov. Asa Hutchinson has already said that Arkansas schools should ignore the president's directive.
The president says his directive-which is not binding but could result in the loss of federal education grants-is designed to protect transgender children and teens from bullying.
The states say it is an overreach of executive power. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says Congress, not the president, should set any rules on bathroom use in schools and vowed to fight the directive "all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court."
We want to know what you think. Are Texas and the other states right to take the president's directive to court? Or should states follow the directive?
Send your response (50 words maximum) to [email protected] by Wednesday, June 1. You can also mail your response to the Texarkana Gazette Friday Poll, at P.O. Box 621, Texarkana, TX 75504. Be sure to include your name, address and phone number. We will print as many responses as we can in next Friday's paper.
Last Week: Washington Redskins
Last week's poll was about a Washington Post poll that found 90 percent of Native Americans don't consider the controversy over the Washington Redskins' name to be all that important. Is the whole issue of the Washington Redskins name really that important? Or are some making too much of nothing?
One-the name of a football team is not important enough for a national debate. Two-the Indians should be proud to have a team named the Redskins. Mascots are always picked because they are strong and fierce! It wouldn't bother me to have a team named the Whiteskins!-C.H., Texarkana, Texas
I have read and seen on TV that surveys show that very few of the American Native Indians are concerned. And the few who are in charge of the notion that the name Redskins indeed does offend them are a few knuckleheads, who don't know what they are talking about -B.J., Texarkana, Texas
Using skin color as the team name is ridiculous-how would white skins, brown skins, yellow skins, black skins sound? I do not buy it was to honor them-white man has taken their land, slaughtered, froze, starved and displaced them and broke every treaty.-J.B., Texarkana, Ark.
From www.facebook.com/texarkanagazette
- Yes it's offensive is it important? Not really.
- No it's not!