Update, Jan. 19: After an emotional debate, the House has passed the transgender bathroom bill in a 52-17 vote. Three Republicans voted against it, along with all the Democrats. The bill now heads to the Senate. Our orginal story continues below.
Despite vocal opposition during public comment, a bill restricting transgender people from using bathrooms, locker rooms and other private areas in publicly funded facilities that align with their gender identity is heading to the Utah House floor for debate. The restriction would apply to schools, county recreation centers and even domestic violence shelters.
The vote on HB257 in the House Business and Labor Committee hearing was 12-3, with the only Republican ‘no’ vote coming from Rep. Norman Thurston. The final tally, like the vote on the anti-DEI bill in the House Education Committee, was heavily weighted for the GOP supermajority.
The sponsor, Republican Rep. Kera Birkeland, framed the legislation as a way to protect privacy for all Utahns and prevent “bad actors” from preying on people.
Under the bill, people “whose biological reproductive system is of the general type that function in a way that could produce ova” would be required to use the female restroom, even if they’re a transgender man and physically do not look like a woman. And a person “whose biological reproductive system is of the general type that functions to fertilize the ova of a female” would be required to use the male bathroom, even if they’re a transgender woman and do not resemble a man.
The only exception, Birkeland said, would be if a transgender individual has updated their birth certificate to match their gender identity and has undergone gender-affirming surgery.
“If a person who's a bad actor says, ‘I'm transgender and I have a right to be in this bathroom,’ that doesn't correspond with their sex at birth and they haven't had any surgery, there's no verification that they are truly transgender and they start to perpetrate on women and put women, particularly is the cases that I've seen, at risk,” she said.
As it applies to K-12 education, Birkeland said a transgender child and their parents must ”set up a privacy plan” with the school to gain access to unisex or single-occupancy bathrooms. The bill would require government and publicly funded facilities to have unisex or single-occupancy bathrooms available.
Corrine Johnson, president of Utah Parents United, “wholeheartedly” supports Birkeland’s bill and told the committee it is a “significant stride toward ensuring equality, individual privacy and competitive opportunities for all, irrespective of gender.”
“Parents and educators have been asking for sex-designated privacy spaces for their children for years.”
However, the majority of people who participated in public comment at the hearing spoke in opposition. Alex Williams, a 15-year-old transgender girl, and her father, oppose the bill. Williams, who attends a Utah public high school, said the bill may seem like “a win-win” to the Legislature “because trans people are allowed to go into gender nonspecific restrooms,” but it doesn’t solve the problem “because discrimination doesn't only happen in bathrooms.”
“People at my school see me going into a gender nonspecific bathroom, then they'll know I'm trans and I'm basically outing myself to anyone who sees me go to the bathroom.”
Williams said she’s experienced harassment after disclosing to two girls at her school that she was transgender. She worries that being forced to use a separate bathroom because of her gender identity could result in more transphobic comments toward her.
“I don't want to get harassed again because that was a lot,” she said. “It was emotionally costing and it hurt.”
Her father, Matt Williams, believes the committee “really cares about kids,” but thinks the bill misses the mark.
“It feels like you're [the Legislature] asking me to put my child at risk so that some kids don't feel a little uncomfortable,” he said. “If we're putting forth bills to protect women or any other group that asks another group to put themselves at risk, I think we have more work to do.”
