State Rep. Mike Stewart, D-Nashville, shows a gun he bought without a background check to the House Civil Justice subcommittee in Nashville, Tenn., on Wednesday, March 23, 2016. The committee later defeated Stewart’s bill seeking to require background checks for all gun purchases in Tennessee. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig) 
Tennessee Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, addresses the Pachyderm Club of Hamilton County meeting on Aug. 4, 2014.
State Rep. Gerald McCormickNASHVILLE – Tennessee’s public schools and colleges risk losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding if a transgender bathroom bill becomes law, state Attorney General Herbert Slatery warned Monday.
Slatery’s comments came as gay rights advocates sought to amp up pressure on Tennessee Republican lawmakers and the country music industry by calling Monday on major labels to demand bills targeting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community be scratched.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Stewart of Nashville said Slatery’s opinion should serve as the “final nail in the coffin” of the transgender bathroom bill, sponsored by Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, and Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mt. Juliet.
Proponents say the concern is privacy protection.
Slatery said the bathroom bill, which would require students to use bathrooms based on their gender at birth, risks being seen as violating the federal Education Amendments of 1972 if “the U.S. Department of Education, which is charged with enforcing Title IX, interprets Title IX to require that transgender students be given access to restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their ‘gender identity’ instead of their anatomical gender.”