Jonathan Drake/Reuters
Kansas will ignore a decree by the White House to allow transgender students to use bathrooms of their gender identity rather than those matching their birth gender. On Tuesday, the Kansas State Board of Education voted unanimously to allow schools to decide for themselves, putting federal funding for Kansas schools at risk by going against the president’s instructions. The directive by President Obama in support of transgender students has triggered lawsuits from 11 states that don’t want to comply and have accused the federal government of overreaching. Obama issued the directive in mid-May amid controversy over transgender rights in the wake of a North Carolina law forcing transgender students to use the bathroom matching the gender on their birth certificate.