Once again in our state capitol, the sky is falling because of bathrooms.
Twenty-six of 28 members of Tennessee's GOP-run Senate have called on Republican Gov. Bill Haslam to file a lawsuit challenging President Barack Obama's directive that the nation's public schools allow transgender students to use bathrooms consistent with their current gender identity and not their biological sex at birth.
As usual, it is about politics, not children - despite the chest beating.
Last week, in the aftermath of North Carolina passing a new law this year that among other things restricts transgender students to restrooms and other facilities matching the sex on their birth certificates and official school documents, federal Department of Justice and Department of Education officials issued a directive to all public schools in the nation that they must find ways to accommodate transgender students.
Please read that again - federal officials issued a directive to all public schools to find ways to accommodate transgender students. Translation: local schools will figure out how to do this - how many bathrooms and new signs as they need to provide privacy to all students.
But Republicans - especially conservative members and now, apparently Gov. Haslam, too - are whipping this common sense directive up into something it is not: "heavy handed" and the "long arm of the federal government."
When the federal directive was issued last week, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said "there is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex. This guidance gives administrators, teachers and parents the tools they need to protect transgender students from peer harassment and to identify and address unjust school policies."
Here, apparently is where the "long arm" comes into play: While the directive doesn't carry the weight of law, schools can face loss of federal education funding if they don't comply, if they don't figure out how to make sure there are private and safe bathrooms for everyone.
Folks, isn't this a "duh" moment?
Isn't this what you would expect your school system to do anyway? And if they don't, wouldn't you parents be the first ones to scream loud, long and hard either to the state or the federal government for help?
But our lawmakers, including Sens. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, and Bo Watson, R-Hixson, have fired up a letter beseeching the governor to file "legal action if necessary opposing the Obama Administration's 'decree' which denies the privacy rights of more than 99 percent of Tennesseans."
Joe Carr, a former state Republican lawmaker now running for Congress, stoked the fervor, challenging Haslam and state lawmakers "to immediately join North Carolina" in its lawsuit "against the Obama Administration's bullying tactics."
Haslam apparently fears the burn. He has as many responses to this as Donald Trump has had to abortion, John McCain's heroism, girlfriends and a myriad of other about-faces.
In the recently completed legislative session, Haslam expressed concerns about a pending Tennessee bill that sought to restrict public K-12 and college students to restrooms, locker rooms and similar facilities consistent with their birth sex.
He persuaded lawmakers then to hold off on legislation. At the time, Haslam said the issue was best addressed by local education officials, noting that, "We're on new ground, if you will, with a lot of issues. Twenty years ago, we weren't thinking about who uses which bathroom in our public institutions of education, but that's where we are today."
Suddenly he's criticizing the "long arm" of the federal government for asking local school systems to do what he and state officials say school systems should do.
In a statement early Monday, Haslam said, "the White House itself has said what they issued last week is not an enforcement action and does not make any additional requirements under the law." Later he said only "Congress has the authority to write the law, not the executive branch, and we disagree with the heavy-handed approach the Obama administration is taking."
In response to the Republican senators' letter pushing a lawsuit, the governor's press secretary, Jennifer Donnals, said in an email that "the governor's statement speaks for itself. The White House said the guidance was not an enforcement action and didn't make any additional requirements under the law. Decisions on sensitive issues like this should continue to be made at the local level."
Well, yeah. Funny, but that's what the federal directive says, too.