Bill Is Expansive and Stigmatizes Transgender Students
The Tennessee House Education Administration & Planning Committee is about to vote on a bill that targets some of the most vulnerable among us: transgender students. HB 2414 would not only prohibit transgender students from using the restrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity, it goes one step further, mandating that students’ gender will be determined by their original birth certificates.
The bill’s sponsor is Rep. Susan Lynn (photo).
“Public schools shall require that a student use student restroom and locker room facilities that are assigned for use by persons of the same sex as the sex indicated on the student’s original birth certificate,” the bill reads.
It also has a section that applies to institutions of higher learning.
“Public institutions of higher education shall require that a student use the restroom and locker room facilities that are assigned for use by persons of the same sex as the sex indicated on the student’s original birth certificate.”
Ryan Thoreson, a Yale Law School Robert L. Bernstein International Human Rights Fellow at Human Rights Watch calls the bill “dangerous” in a local Tennessee paper op-ed.
“Laws limiting transgender students’ access to shared facilities are a textbook case of solutions in search of a problem,” Thoreson writes. “It’s not necessary to limit access to shared facilities to protect privacy. In school restrooms, like any restroom, students are not exposing their bodies to each other. In restrooms, locker rooms and showers, legislators could support simple measures like stalls or curtains to protect all students’ privacy without discriminating against transgender kids.”
These bills would not advance student safety, but they would further stigmatize transgender students who have a hard enough time in school as it is. Lawmakers have been unable to point to any instances in which transgender youth harass, intimidate or bully their peers in shared facilities. On the other hand, there is widespread documentation that transgender youth themselves are vulnerable in schools and are often subjected to verbal and physical violence at the hands of their non-transgender peers. The raft of invasive bathroom legislation threatens to make that worse.
The bill, HB 2414 is scheduled to be taken up at 3:30 PM CDT, 4:30 PM EDT, according to the Tennessee Equality Project:
There should be a link here for video when the bill comes up. Click on “View Event” for video. It is now live.
This article has been updated to indicate this is a committee hearing, not a full House vote.Â
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