A few dozen protesters picketed in front of Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office on Monday, demanding he drop a federal lawsuit challenging a Biden-era rule that expanded disability rights to people with gender dysphoria. But the lawsuit, activists fear, seeks to do more than roll back trans rights.
That is because the lawsuit challenges both the constitutionality of the Biden rule about gender dysphoria and the underlying federal law: Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which defines disability categories. Last September, Carr and 16 other Republican state attorneys general signed onto the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in the Northern District of Texas.
The Georgians protesting see the attack on Section 504 as an attack on the rights of all Georgians with disabilities, not just trans people. “They’re using gender dysphoria to attack all disability accommodations,” said Aaron Baker, an activist who joined the Feb. 24 protest.
“Disability can come for anyone,” said 32-year-old Becky Reynolds, who uses a prosthetic leg after a life-threatening motorcycle accident on Memorial Drive five years ago that — in her words — left her brain “a bit scrambled.”
For Reynolds, having a disability defined under Section 504 means being able to live and work, while also bearing the costs of replacing her above-the knee prosthetic every few years. Even with insurance, she says, it runs her about $30,000 out of pocket.
The lawsuit is currently on hold: Carr and the other Republican state attorneys general asked a federal judge to pause it, so they can assess President Donald Trump’s executive order decreeing that federal agencies shall not “promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology.”
Trump’s order likely means the Biden rule classifying gender dysphoria as a disability in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act will get the axe anyway. But the Georgians protesting outside Carr’s office on Monday fear the attorneys general lawsuit could still move forward — and attempt to do away with disability rights altogether.
Section 504 provides discrimination protections for both physical disabilities and mental ones, such as autism or developmental delays, and it laid the foundation for the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). That means the attorneys general lawsuit’s demand that Section 504 be declared unconstitutional could also affect the ADA, which further protects people with disabilities from discrimination with a provision modeled after Section 504. Any employer or group that violates the ADA can have its federal funding cut.
“Anything in the ADA is there because of [Section] 504. By undoing 504, you can basically undo the ADA,” said Jessica Blinkhorn, an Atlanta-area artist and activist at the protest who uses a motorized wheelchair.
Blinkhorn, who recently won a Guggenheim arts fellowship, explained that these federal protections are why publicly funded buildings have ramps for wheelchair users. They’re also why disabled people can receive needed accommodations — such as extra time to take tests for students with dyslexia or ADHD.
Does the lawsuit challenge Section 504?
In response to public outcry, Carr and the other 16 Republican attorneys general said in a Feb. 19 status report to the court that they’re not asking for Section 504 itself to be declared unconstitutional — and, similarly, that they’re not trying to cut off federal disability funding and accommodations to Americans.
Carr’s spokesperson Kara Richardson said the same thing in an email to Atlanta Civic Circle. “We are not seeking to declare Section 504 unconstitutional. We argue that Biden’s interpretation of Section 504 is unconstitutional,” she said, adding that the lawsuit is narrowly targeted at striking down the Biden rule defining gender dysphoria as a disability.
“Our lawsuit is about one thing — fighting the Biden-Harris administration’s obsession with promoting a radical, progressive transgender ideology at every turn,” said Carr in a Feb. 25 statement to Atlanta Civic Circle. “Georgians shouldn’t have their tax dollars go towards treating ‘transgender dysphoria’ as a disability, and we refuse to stand by while children with Down syndrome, Dyslexia, and autism are sacrificed at the alter [sic] of wokism.”
Carr joined the lawsuit, the spokesperson said, to make sure federal agencies don’t revoke disability funding to Georgia if the state doesn’t comply with the Biden-era gender dysphoria rule
However, the lawsuit specifically asks the court to declare Section 504 itself unconstitutional in its demand for relief — in addition to striking the Biden administration’s addition of gender dysphoria to Section 504’s disability categories.
Atlanta lawyer Chris Timmons, an experienced federal litigator, said the lawsuit clearly spells out a demand for the court to declare Section 504 unconstitutional. “That may not have been what they meant, but it is what they said,” Timmons said.
He noted that the plaintiffs’ Feb. 19 status report to the court did “walk it back” but added, “It’d be cleaner if they did it through an amended complaint.” Plaintiffs can update or clarify their original lawsuit by filing an amended complaint, but Carr and the other attorneys general have not done that.
“At best, it’s bad drafting. At worst, it’s a complete about face — that they originally intended all of 504 to be unconstitutional, but after receiving political blowback, they walked it back,” Timmons added.
ABOUT GEORGIA’S ATTORNEY GENERAL:
Georgia’s Attorney General is a statewide elected office. Chris Carr, a Republican, was appointed to the role in 2016 by former Republican Gov. Nathan Deal to fill a vacancy. He was subsequently elected in 2018 and reelected in 2022. He is running for governor in 2026.
Thank you for boosting info on our fight, Alessandro! Our next protest will be March 12th, 1pm, outside Carr’s office again!
Thoroughgoing research and clarity Alessandro. Thank you for taking the time to report on this effort to keep our politicians accountable.