Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has joined a coalition of 21 states in challenging a Colorado school district’s policy that assigns student accommodations for field trips and sporting events based on gender identity rather than biological sex. The move comes after a federal district court dismissed a lawsuit brought by parents who objected to the policy.
The group of attorneys general filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, supporting the parents’ appeal. The brief argues that the lower court’s decision treats Christian parents as “second-class citizens” by preventing their case from moving forward to discovery, while similar cases have not been dismissed at this stage.
According to the brief, the school district’s policy relies on medical guidelines that Alabama has previously challenged in court.
Attorney General Marshall said, “The Constitution does not require parents to sit idly by as school districts overtaken by gender ideology force their daughters to share hotel rooms and locker rooms with boys. Nor does the Constitution require courts to accept the ideology posing as medical guidance by interest groups that want to offer sex-change procedures to children. Our children deserve better.”
Marshall has been active in legal efforts concerning policies affecting minors and transgender issues, including defending Alabama’s Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, which was cleared for enforcement by the Eleventh Circuit in January 2024.
Other states joining Alabama in this brief include Florida, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming and Arizona’s state legislature.
