After its Republican-controlled Senate passed a measure on Friday mandating that people use restrooms and locker rooms in public schools and government-owned buildings that match their gender assigned at birth, Utah is poised to become the next state to control bathroom entry for transgender people.
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. Opponents pointed out that many trans people don’t want to have surgery and that not all states permit people to change their birth certificates.
Republican Governor Spencer Cox is currently deliberating on the measure. He hasn’t indicated whether he’ll sign it. His office did not respond right away to a Friday message asking for comment.
In addition, the law mandates that schools develop “privacy plans” for trans students and other individuals who might not feel at ease using group restrooms, such as by allowing them to use a faculty restroom, which perhaps could “out” trans students, according to opponents.
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Tennessee are just a few of the states that have passed legislation aimed at limiting the types of restrooms that transgender people can use. This time, the government of West Virginia is debating passing a transgender bathroom bill for schoolchildren.
Federal appeals judges disagree on whether it is against federal laws or the Constitution for school policies to impose limitations on which bathrooms transgender students can utilize. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision upholding an order granting trans kids access to the kids’ restroom at a school in Indiana was recently rejected by the US Supreme Court.
In order to improve privacy protections in existing government buildings, the Utah act asks the state to think about adding more solitary tenancy bathrooms to any new government structures. It did not offer any money for these improvements.
Republican Rep. Kera Birkeland, the sponsor, claimed that she was attempting to outlaw a naked man using the restroom with an 8-year-old woman. She claimed that incident occurred at a public service in Salt Lake County, and authorities claimed they were powerless to intervene because the person claimed to be trans.
The legislation, according to critics, should focus on the behavior rather than trans residents and visitors.
Republican Sen. Todd Weiler remarked during a committee hearing that the problem “seems more like creepy men in bathrooms problem” than one of gender identity.
The act was changed to target lewdness, pornography, and intruding in bathrooms, but opponents point out that using the women’s restroom may also mean a trans man who was taking testosterone and might even have grown a heavy beard.
On Thursday, the Utah Capitol hosted a protest against the act hosted by the ACLU of Utah. In reference to racial segregation in the 1960s, one person carried a sign that read, “It’s not about bathrooms just like it was never about water fountains.”
According to Aaron Welcher, the ACLU of Utah’s director, trans and genderfluid people “are a part of our communities and deserve freedom from frequent political attacks.”
“We will use all available means, including legal action when necessary, to defend Transgender Utahns’ civil rights and liberties from powerful policymakers infringing on these freedoms,” he declared, “with each disruption to their rights — in healthcare, sports, identification, and now public spaces.”
Sen. Dan McKay, the Senate’s sponsor, read a list of news articles about assaults and sexual assaults that have occurred in rooms across the nation, including one in Paris, and argued on Thursday that these situations show the need for the costs.
Sen. Daniel Thatcher, a Republican, inquired as to whether any of the offenders were trans. McKay claimed that the news articles did not say.
Physician and Democrat Rep. Jennifer Plumb felt that she had failed to convey to her fellow lawmakers that our trans community is different from perverts and pedophiles as well as the repulsive people who abuse our children, many of whom I see in the emergency room. “To maintain that difference alive, we must put in a lot of effort.”
After a conference committee clarified that public school students may be charged criminally for using the restroom that matches their gender identity, the bill was swiftly passed in both the House and Senate on Friday. Equality Utah, an advocacy group for LGBTQ+ rights, had called for this change.
According to Equality Utah, “trans Americans still have the freedom and liberty to access services in open spaces.”
No lawmakers or members of the public objected to the part in the bill that enables the state to maintain some national Title IX provisions that demand equal opportunities for male and female athletes in schools, as well as identical facilities and access to recommended playing and training times.
The measure still needs the governor’s approval before it can become law, so this story has been updated.
