Despite warnings that the costs may put at risk millions of dollars in national funding for homes, the Legislature on Monday advanced a bill to ban trans people from school restrooms, domestic violence shelters, and different areas that coincide with their gender identity.
The House Committee on Civil Law and Procedure agreed to expand House Bill 608 by Rep. Roger Wilder, R-Denham Springs, to the full House. The bill, which would involve accommodations for a certain gender, resembles so-called toilet bills that have appeared in red states all over the country.
Opponents of the policy, dubbed the Women’s Safety and Protection Act, say it may protect the privacy of women and girls in prone areas. However, LGBTQ+ rights advocates claim that it would increase the injury posed by a community that is already vulnerable.
On Monday, anti-domestic murder organizations made a new defense for the bill, saying it would threaten domestic violence shelter functions.
HB 608 had “put domestic assault homes out of business in Louisiana,” testified Kim Sport of United Against Domestic Violence.
Such shelters in Louisiana get approximately $14 million, or 90% of their operating budget, from federal grants, added Mariah Wineski, executive director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
According to her, federal laws mandate that those homes camera clients based on their gender identity. She claimed that the bill would cause shelters to break those rules, and that they may lose their money.
Attorney General Liz Murrill told lawmakers she would sue the federal government if shelter money was threatened on that front, easing issues.
She said, “We need to go fight these plans so that we can have logical means to meet the needs of the people.” The federal government is “in some ways pressing these dilemmas,” and if they threaten the money, I’m prepared to defend it.
Murrill promised to contact Gov. Jeff Landry, who supports the act, to put money into the finances for the shelters to “backfill” any money loss. The governor’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1 cuts $7 million from the previous year’s budget to build new shelters, according to the Louisiana Illuminator.
If the bill passes, Louisiana would join Alabama, Arkansas, and at least eight other states that regulate which bathrooms transgender people may use. The Supreme Court has yet to rule on the issue, despite the fact that LGBTQ+ people and their families have frequently filed lawsuits against those laws.
The issue’s biggest supporters in Louisiana are powerful conservative lobbying organizations and those who claim they protect women. “What is a woman? That question has been bouncing around,” said Gene Mills, president of the Louisiana Family Forum. “HB 608 answers that question. It shields women from ‘gender ideology”s unscientific and political applications.
Rep. Emily Chenevert, R-Baton Rouge, said she worried that without the bill, young girls would need to change in the same spaces as children assigned at birth as male.
Legislators also listened to transgender community members who expressed concern that the bill would harm transgender youth who would be forced to use areas where they would be vulnerable to bullying.
A transgender man who testified against the bill said, “If we separate things by the definition of sex in this bill, (a transgender boy) has to go change with the boys and is subject to some violence.” When I was younger, “I hated the changing room, and I really would have preferred just a private space for myself.”
Domestic violence shelters already have numerous safeguards in place and 24-hour staff trained to protect victims’ safety, according to Wineski, the shelter advocate. The shelters have not encountered any safety issues as a result of screening victims based on gender identity.
(Both Sport and Wineski filed white cards, which means they provided details about the bill but did not declare their support for or against it.)
Additionally, the committee shelved a bill that would have allowed Louisianans to decide whether to change the state’s constitution’s definition of marriage as a union that occurs between a man and a woman.
Though the Supreme Court has recognized the right to same-sex marriage, members of the LGBTQ+ community testified House Bill 98 by Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, would signal acceptance and tolerance.
The committee chose not to forward the bill for consideration to the entire House.
