Missouri's Koster says Obama acted too quickly on bathrooms

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri's top Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Attorney General Chris Koster, said Tuesday the Obama administration moved "too quickly and too unilaterally" in issuing guidance on transgender students' access to public school bathrooms.

The federal directive from leaders at the Justice and Education departments issued last week tells public schools to allow transgender students to use the restrooms that match their gender identities, not their sex at birth.

Koster, who is seeking to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon, instead emphasized policies at the local level.

"These situations are presenting themselves in school districts across the state of Missouri," Koster said after speaking to the Columbia Chamber of Commerce.

"School boards, I believe and hope, are recognizing the need of transgender students with respect, dignity and fairness."

The Republican candidates for governor are suburban St. Louis businessman John Brunner, former Navy SEAL officer Eric Greitens, former state House speaker and U.S. attorney Catherine Hanaway and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder.

Koster also told reporters Tuesday he's not convinced a veto is needed for a sweeping stand-your-ground gun-rights proposal that also allows people to carry concealed guns without a permit.

The measure passed the Republican-led Legislature on the last day of the 2016 session Friday despite pushback from Democrats.

"I'm a proponent of gun rights in this state and look forward to reviewing the bill," said Koster, who served in the state senate as a Republican before switching parties and running for attorney general as a Democrat in 2008. "But I haven't heard anything that would cause me to think that the governor should veto it."

Koster said he's watching a court case over whether a federal law barring discrimination based on sex in education protects a Virginia transgender student.

A high-school student who was born female but identifies as male wants to use the boys' restroom at school and claims a school policy discriminates by requiring students to use restrooms corresponding with their biological gender or single-stall, unisex restrooms available to everyone.

The attorney general said he plans to file an amicus brief that says once there's resolution over whether the federal Title IX law protects transgender students, then "local school boards should have a chance to develop policies that are best suited for local districts within the context of a national consensus of the meaning of Title IX."

Koster's comments came amid criticism of the directive on transgender students' bathroom access from some Republican state House members, who urged state officials to fight back.

Rep. Andrew Koenig, a Republican from Manchester, urged Koster in a letter released Tuesday to take legal action.

"Not only does the Obama administration's policy represent yet another example of unnecessary and unconstitutional federal overreach into local functions of government, it is a misguided policy that will threaten the health and well-being of students across Missouri," Koenig said.

Ash Grove Republican Rep. Mike Moon also decried the directive in a letter Monday to Missouri's K-12 education commissioner and other state officials.

Moon cited former The Johns Hopkins Hospital psychiatrist Paul McHugh, who in an op-ed to The Wall Street Journal originally published in 2014 argued transgender people suffer from a "mental disorder."

The gun bill is SB 656.