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SALT LAKE CITY – Following a burst of later changes to the scheme and conflicting information from politicians about what the bill really does, the Utah Senate on Thursday voted in favor of the contentious bath bill.
Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, the bill’s floor sponsor, introduced a new draft on Thursday that defines gender-specific bathrooms to exclude transgender people after introducing significant changes to HB257 in the second substitute on Wednesday to remove language prohibiting them from using restrooms that don’t match their sex assigned at birth.
Although there are no criminal penalties or enforcement mechanisms for breaking the law, McCay’s recent replacement goes back to earlier restrictions on people using restrooms that don’t match their sex designation in government-owned buildings.
The senator said that his act accomplished the goals of the original bill, albeit “in a different way.”
“We identify what bathrooms are, who belongs in which restroom, and how to, I suppose, qualify to be in one bath or another,” he said, rather than making this about protection. “And I believe it is quite distinct from that description.”
The modifications made on Wednesday, according to McCay, “were never intended” to make it “OK for anyone to use any bathroom.” He claimed that he had just gotten two hours of sleep and that politicians had been working on a “tight timeline” to draft the earlier bill, which was also revealed moments before senators met on the floor.
“I apologize for being forgetful, but I did miss a few things,” McCay said.
However, the lawmaker brought up the revision of the bill during the press conference on Wednesday.
Just before the Senate started its final discussion of the bill, McCay’s replacement was made public, surprising some lawmakers and advocates. During their daily press briefing on Wednesday, the Senate leadership seemed at ease with the second replacement, despite the fact that earlier responses to questions about the plan were occasionally unclear and seemed to contradict what was in the bill.
In the end, the bill was approved 21 to 8, with Sens. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, and Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, the only Republicans who joined forces with all Democrats in opposition.
In the first two days of the standard session, HB257 has moved swiftly through both legislative chambers. The House will need to re-approve the bill after the Senate changes before it can be sent to the governor’s office.
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Kera Birkeland, R-Morgan, in what she referred to as an effort to increase women’s bathroom protection. However, opponents and transgender advocates have criticized it as something that further stigmatizes the trans community without properly defending restroom privacy.
After service providers expressed concern that the bill would risk millions in federal funding by breaking federal anti-discrimination laws, McCay’s next alternative exempts federal grant recipients like domestic violence shelters and rape crisis locations. That exemption was used in the bill’s current draft as well.
Here is what the bill’s latest draft accomplishes:
- In order to keep trans people out of the state script, HB257 just defines both “male” and “female.” A woman’s reproductive system that is “of the standard type that functions in a way that may produce ova” is referred to as having sexual characteristics.
- The bill only applies to restrooms and changing rooms in government-owned buildings, not private ones like shops, movie theaters, or grocery stores.
- A transgender person must first go through gender-related surgery and officially change the sex on their birth certificate before entering any changing place that is not in line with their sex assigned at birth.
- In K–12 institutions, sex-designated facilities are subject to the same rules.
- Although the bill does not include enforcement or legal penalties for violations unless a crime is committed, it does define men’s and women’s restrooms to exclude trans people.
- HB257 increases criminal sanctions for people, regardless of gender, who commit multiple crimes in a restroom at once. If someone violates the law while using the restroom of the other gender, the unlawful charge is increased.
- Potential government buildings must provide more single-stall or mixed restrooms and amenities, according to the bill.
- Title IX provisions requiring equal access to facilities for boys’ and girls’ high school sports would be codified in the proposal.
