Bill prohibiting transgender people from "women-only" spaces advances

Yahoo

21-02-2025

CHEYENNE — A bill intended to prohibit transgender people from entering 'women-only' spaces passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
House Bill 72, 'Protecting women's privacy in public spaces act,' sponsored by Rep. Martha Lawley, R-Worland, would effectively bar people defined as 'male' by the bill from using any public 'female-only spaces,' including public restrooms, locker rooms, gender-assigned jails and single-sex schools, no matter their current gender identity.
It is one of several bills filed in this legislative session that impacts transgender people and one of two specifically addressing restroom use.
While many opponents of the bill said it is cruel and excludes a small portion of the population from public life, Lawley reiterated a common argument among those in favor of the legislation: It's necessary to protect girls and women.
'Unfortunately, Mr. Chairman, men who assert female identity are currently allowed to enter women's private spaces,' Lawley told the committee Thursday.
Lawley said 12 states have passed similar bills, and other states are currently considering them. She added that President Donald Trump's recent executive order, 'Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government,' demonstrated that this issue is a priority everywhere.
'I believe that women and girls deserve to have their privacy and dignity safeguarded at school and in public facilities,' Lawley said. 'Their right of privacy and safety should not be dependent on other's beliefs about gender.'
The bill defines 'male' and 'female' based on the individual's reproductive organs and requires the use of 'sex-designated restrooms, showers, sleeping quarters and locker room facilities at public facilities.'
It also provides avenues for complaints and civil actions, should individuals violate the bill's protections.
Due to the number of people who appeared for public comment, the committee limited comment to two minutes per individual. They later further reduced public comment time to one minute per person.
Opponents of the bill asked representatives to consider how it would impact the relatively small trans community in the state. Wyoming Equality Director Sara Burlingame noted there is no real way to confirm someone's gender without physically checking, which itself causes safety issues.
'(The bill) focuses as much as it can on folks who have intentionally transitioned their gender,' Burlingame said, referring to efforts to consider intersex individuals in the bill. 'So that leaves us where we always are.'
While the bill tries to account for intersex people, it doesn't account for how enforcers of the bill would 'check' the gender of an individual trying to enter a restricted space. Birth certificates can be amended and other paperwork can be changed, Burlingame told the committee.
Burlingame said the people of Wyoming have the opportunity to speak with each other neighbor to neighbor, or they can let the heavy hand of the government come in and scrutinize everyone.
'In the absence of that, we are left with physically checking,' Burlingame said. 'And I would say that nobody wants the government to get into the business of getting into our business.'
Ellis Roberts, who self-identified as a transgender Wyomingite, spoke to the committee regarding Lawley's suggestion that if someone is suspected to be transgender using a facility prohibited under the bill, they be stopped and questioned.
The bill does not suggest that everyone have some kind of identification on hand. Rather, it provides legally defensible definitions should an individual be questioned about their use of a space, Lawley told the committee.
'I am not so much of a fool that I don't understand the momentum of this state and this country,' Roberts said. 'But I beg you, when drafting, reviewing, amending policy, I'm begging you for grace and compassion for your neighbors.'
Other opponents noted that this bill will effectively legislate transgender people out of public life, as it is hard to hold a job or attend school when you have to be concerned about whether you're allowed to use the restroom.
'Is it fair that I sacrifice my dignity and my privacy because someone stops me because I don't look woman enough?' Roberts said.
Though Lawley presented the bill with some amendments to remove counties and municipalities to address some of the complex challenges jails would encounter with enforcement, the amendment altered the bill so heavily that she and the committee decided it was not worth considering.
Instead, Lawley said that she would work to find other ways to address the challenges of jails, which may have limited female and male staff available to enter private spaces, such as blocks.
HB 72 passed with four in favor and Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, excused. The bill will now go to the Senate floor, where it will face three more rounds of votes, before returning to the House for a concurrence vote.
A similar bill, Senate File 62, 'Restrooms in publicly funded schools-2,' sponsored by Sen. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, will be heard on second reading in the House on Monday. Although initially scheduled for second reading on Wednesday of this week, Lawley made a motion to postpone SF 62 until next week to 'match up the schedules' of both bills.
'What we're trying to do is sync up, because these bills are on the same subject,' Lawley said. 'That gives leadership the opportunity (make) choices about how to handle the fact that we have two bills potentially coming out.'
Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, called the move a 'delay tactic,' and said she was 'strongly opposed to it.'
The House voted in favor of Lawley's motion to hear SF 62 on Monday.