Tennessee House passes bill to segregate university, prison bathrooms by biological sex
A bill to require restrooms and showers in detention facilities, public college dormitories, and domestic violence centers be segregated by biological sex will soon be headed to Gov. Bill Lee's desk.
SB 468/HB 571, sponsored by Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, and Rep. Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, has passed both the Senate and House of Representatives, and needs a final procedural vote before going to Lee's desk to be signed.
'This bill is part of our continuing effort to protect the privacy and security of girls and women in private spaces,' Bulso said on Tuesday.
Bowling and Bulso presented the bill as an effort to improve public safety, seeking to eliminate issues "with biological males accessing private areas which should only be accessed by girls and women.' No specific examples of existing issues were offered during debate on the bill.
Dubbed the 'Women's Safety and Protection Act," the bill would require private restroom, changing, and showering facilities to be segregated by biological sex ― as defined in the bill ― at all correction and detention facilities, college and university dormitories, and domestic violence centers in the state. Individuals other than the designated sex would be prohibited from entering those private spaces.
The bill makes exceptions for members of the same family, young children needing assistance, custodians and first responders rendering aid.
The bill does not prohibit shelters, schools, and correctional facilities from establishing single-occupancy areas that are not designated by sex.
Opponents of the bill criticized it as an effort to target transgender individuals' security and participation in society.
'This bill is not about safety. It is about exclusion. Under the guise of protecting women, HB 571 seeks to codify rigid, outdated definitions of sex that fail to account for the existence of transgender people like me,' Elliot Certain, a transgender student at Middle Tennessee State University, told the Civil Justice Subcommittee last month.
House Republicans passed the bill along party lines on Tuesday, without any debate after leadership called for an immediate vote, cutting off Democrats' ability to object.
Ahead of the House floor vote on April 15, Rep. Aftyn Behn, D-Nashville, presented amendments seeking to allow transgender individuals to use facilities of their choice. Republicans voted them down.
'This bill basically insinuates that trans individuals who use the bathroom of their choice are predators and that they do not deserve to use bathrooms and other accommodations that suit them,' Behn argued. 'This bill is about fear. This is not about safety. … There is no epidemic of trans Tennesseans causing harm in bathrooms.'
Separately this year, Bulso sponsored a bill requiring residential education programs in Tennessee to segregate restrooms and shower facilities by 'immutable biological sex.' Lee signed the bill into law earlier this month.
State law already bars transgender students from accessing sex-based multi-use restrooms and changing facilities, instead requiring schools to offer another 'reasonable accommodation' to transgender students and school staff. A federal judge dismissed a legal challenge last September.
Vivian Jones covers state government and politics for The Tennessean. Reach her at vjones@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TN House passes bill to segregate college bathrooms by biological sex
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