When the Republican-controlled Legislature of Utah passed a bill on Friday mandating that transgender people use restrooms and locker rooms in public schools and government-owned buildings that match their gender assigned at birth, Utah became the latest state with regulations on bathroom access.
According to the law, transgender people can prove they underwent gender-affirming surgery and changed the sex on their birth certificate in order to refute a claim that they are in the wrong bath. Many trans people don’t want to have surgery, and opponents noted that not all states permit people to change their birth certificates.
The bill is currently awaiting a decision from Republican Governor Spencer Cox.
Additionally, the law mandates that schools develop “privacy plans” for trans students and others who might not feel at ease using cluster restrooms, such as by allowing them to use a unisex restroom, which opponents claim could “out” transgender children.
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Tennessee are just a few of the states that have passed laws aimed at limiting the types of restrooms transgender people can use, while nine different states have laws restricting the rooms transgender individuals may use in schools. Currently, the government of West Virginia is debating passing a transgender bathroom bill for students.
Federal appeals courts disagree on whether it is against the law or the Constitution for school policies to impose limitations on the use of restrooms by trans students. An appeal of a decision upholding an order granting transgender boys access to the boys’ restroom at an Indiana school was recently rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Utah bill asks the state to consider adding more single occupancy bathrooms to improve privacy protections in existing government buildings and mandates that any new public buildings must have them. No funding for improvements was provided by it.
Republican Rep. Kera Birkeland, the sponsor, claimed that she was attempting to prevent a naked man from using the restroom with an 8-year-old girl. She claimed that because the man claimed to be transgender, authorities in Salt Lake County were powerless to intervene after the incident occurred at a community service.
The policy, according to opponents, should focus on actions rather than transgender individuals.
Republican Sen. Todd Weiler stated during a committee hearing that the problem seems more like one of “scary men in rooms” than of gender identity.
Lewdness, pornography, and trespassing in bathrooms are the behaviors that the bill was amended to target, but opponents point out that using the women’s restroom may also involve a trans man taking testosterone and possibly even having grown a beard.
Sen. Dan McCay, the Senate’s sponsor, argued on Thursday that incidents of sexual assaults and murders that have occurred in bathrooms across the nation—including one in Paris—showed the necessity of the bill.
Sen. Daniel Thatcher, a Republican, inquired as to whether any of the offenders were trans. McCay claimed that the news articles did not say.
Democrat Rep. Jennifer Plumb, a physician, expressed her frustration that she was unable to convey to her colleagues that “perverts and pedophiles, as well as the repulsive people who do things to our kids — many of whom I see as victims in the ER,” are not the same as our trans community. “We must put in a lot of effort to keep that distinction alive.”
After a conference committee clarified that public school students would not be charged criminally for using the restroom that matches their gender identity, the bill was swiftly approved in both the House and Senate on Friday. Equality Utah, an advocacy group for LGBTQ+ rights, had called for this change.
“Transgender Americans have the freedom and liberty to access public facilities,” according to Equality Utah.
The bill’s provision requiring equal opportunities for male and female athletes in schools, as well as identical facilities and access to coaching and practice times, was not opposed by any lawmakers or members of the public.
