Anti-transgender bathroom bill is headed to Tennessee governor's desk
A proposal that would require educational institutions that house students overnight to separate bathrooms “by immutable biological sex” is headed to Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s desk.
A proposal in Tennessee that would require all public and private educational institutions that house students overnight to separate bathrooms “by immutable biological sex” is headed to Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s desk for his approval.
The Republican-dominant Senate easily cleared the legislation on Thursday over the objections of LGBTQ activists and the chamber’s handful of Democratic members.
The legislation is just the latest effort targeting the transgender community in Tennessee, where Republican lawmakers have over the years repeatedly enacted bills aimed at the LGBTQ community as the party pursues such legislation nationwide.
Currently, five states have laws restricting which restrooms transgender people can use at colleges and universities: Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Ohio and Utah (Louisiana and North Dakota have measures that apply only to school dormitories), according to Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank. Two additional states, West Virginia and Wyoming, have similar laws that will take effect later this year. Only the measures in Florida and Ohio apply to private as well as public institutions of higher learning.
“It just seems we spend a very long time on a very small part of our population,” said Sen. Heidi Campbell, a Democrat from Nashville.
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