JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (WGEM) – The Missouri House Committee on Emerging Issues is scheduled to review seven pieces of legislation on Wednesday, each of which would further restrict the expression of gender identity in the state.
Multiple proposed bills would require all schools in the state to provide bathrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms that are separated by biological sex and create a legal structure to pursue damages against the school if there are any suspected violations.
Another bill would impose the same requirement on all workplaces.
In 2023, Republican Missouri Governor Mike Parson signed a law nicknamed the S.A.F.E. Act, which stands for “Save Adolescents From Experimentation. The title falsely implies that gender transition procedures are a form of experimentation, which is not consistent with the position of the mainstream medical community.
The National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Surgeon General, and the American Academy of Pediatrics have all concluded that these medical interventions are legitimate treatment options.
A bill filed by St. Charles Republican state Rep. Adam Schnelting would establish throughout state law that references to gender would be synonymous with sex, effectively disregarding the definitive differences between those two aspects of identity; ‘Sex,’ describing the biological traits that define one as male or female; and ‘Gender,’ describing the social and cultural differences between the sexes.
Schnelting’s bill would attempt to have state law fundamentally disregard that difference and force individuals to align their gender identity with their biological sex.
The following is a list of legislation set to be discussed in the Emerging Issues committee on Wednesday:
- HB 1520 – Would make the gender-affirming treatment ban permanent and retroactive,
- HB 1519 – Would protect from liability any medical professionals who refuse to assist with a gender transition,
- HB 1674 – Requires private employers to provide biological sex-exclusive bathrooms to employees,
- HB 2355 – Requires schools to provide biological sex-exclusive bathrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms,
- HB 2308 – Requires schools to provide biological sex-exclusive bathrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms and creates a legal framework for suing non-compliant schools,
- HB 2309 – Eliminates the difference between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ within state law,
- HB 2357 – Requires all public bathrooms to be biological sex-exclusive.
House Majority Floor leader Jon Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit, said at the beginning of the 2024 session his caucus does not plan to prioritize legislation on LGBTQ issues.
“I don’t think that will be much of a focus,” Patterson said. “I think if you really want to help kids, we have kids that can’t read, 1/5 of our kids are obese, we had 40 kids die of gun violence in the past year. Addressing crime, addressing education, if you really want to help kids, those are the things we should work on.”
However, State Sen. Denny Hoskins, a member of the far-right “Missouri Freedom Caucus,” said continuing to restrict this type of expression is one of his biggest priorities.
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