Transgender bathroom bill fails in Tennessee legislature

(AP) — A transgender bathroom bill in the Tennessee legislature failed Monday after the House sponsor said she was withdrawing the legislation while waiting to see how legal challenges play out in other states that have passed similar measures.

The head of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBT civil rights organization, hailed the bill's death and urged legislators not to bring it up again.

"Tennessee lawmakers were wise to learn from the mistakes of North Carolina and Mississippi and halt this cruel legislation that would have only worsened the marginalization and harassment transgender students already face on a daily basis," HRC President Chad Griffin said.

The state's attorney general had issued an opinion saying that the state risked losing federal education funds if the measure became law, putting more than $1.3 billion at risk.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, who said he had received calls and emails from a number of business people about the measure, had raised concerns that the state could lose education funding if the measure were to ever become law.