Proposed Virginia Law Copycats North Carolina, Requires Schools to ‘Out’ Trans Children to Parents

New Bill Would Harm Trans Children

The Commonwealth of Virginia has entered the race to become 2017’s most transphobic state. HB1612, known as the Physical Privacy Act was pre-filed in the state legislature this week by Republican Delegate Bob Marshall (HD-13). Much like North Carolina’s HB2, Virginia’s newly proposed law seeks to bar transgender people from using restrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity in “public schools, public institutions of higher education, and government buildings.” 

According to the text of the bill, Viriginians must be “protected” from encountering transgender children and students in person and from having to acknowledge that they exist.

It is the public policy of the Commonwealth to (i) protect individuals in public schools, public institutions of higher education, and government buildings; (ii) provide for the physical privacy and safety needs of all individuals in such schools, institutions, and buildings; (iii) maintain order and dignity in restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, shower rooms, and similar facilities where individuals may be in a state of undress in the presence of others; and (iv) protect a parent’s fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parent’s child as set forth in § 1-240.1 and recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In what seems to be an attempt to be inclusive, HB1612 ensures that a separate-but-equal provision is made if a trans individual makes a specific request for accommodation – as long as no one else is present at the time. In reality, that means that in a building where no single-stall restroom or changing area is provided, a trans person must wait until a government official has verified that a multi-stall bathroom or lockerroom is completely vacant before they can use it.  

Not to be out done by North Carolina, Virginia’s law would also require public schools to out transgender children to their parents and possibly endanger them:

The principal of a public school attended by a child shall notify the child’s parent, guardian, legal custodian, or other person having control or charge of a child within 24 hours of any request by a child to be recognized or treated as the opposite sex, to use a name or pronouns inconsistent with the child’s sex, or to use a restroom or changing facility designated for the opposite sex.

HB1612 also allows people to bring a lawsuit against the State if they encounter a transgender person in a bathroom, on the assumption that the government has failed to do its job in “protecting” the public from transgender people. 

The Virginia legislative session hasn’t yet begun and it’s not clear just how far this bill will go, but many are wary of its future. Anthony Kreis, a Professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law and friend of NCRM has harsh words for the bill and its sponsor. “Bob Marshall’s bill takes from the worst of North Carolina’s HB2 restricting bathroom access and bootstrapped the worst ideas coming out of Texas about schoolchildren onto it. He’s trying to play chicken with the Supreme Court and the 4th Circuit with LGBT rights. He’s never won and he shouldn’t this time either.”  

RELATED: Bob Marshall Files Religious Liberty Bill Against ‘Same-Sex Marriage Or Homosexual Behavior’

(In 2016 the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Courth Circuit issued a ruling allowing a transgender boy to use the boys’ restroom in Virginia; the Supreme Court stayed that decision until it reviews the case.)

If the bill does pass, the ACLU of Virginia is virtually guaranteed to mount a legal challenge as its North Carolina counterpart has done there. They told NCRM, “We would have hoped that Virginia legislators would have learned valuable economic and civil rights lessons from their colleagues in North Carolina, but certain lawmakers seem committed to taking the Commonwealth down the wrong path.”

In a year of very few certainties, at least one thing seems clear: be prepared for more and more bills like this popping up across the country.

UPDATE:
A Kentucky Democratic lawmaker has filed a similar bill there. As of last month, Kentucky’s governor said he did not support the bill. 

To comment on this article and other NCRM content, visit our Facebook page.