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Transgender Bathroom Debate

Arkansas Senate passes transgender restroom bill critics call extreme

Thao Nguyen
USA TODAY

The majority-Republican Arkansas state Senate voted Tuesday to pass a bill that would criminalize transgender people from using public changing facilities that coincides with their gender identity, introducing a restriction critics say would be the most extreme in the country.

Under Senate Bill 270, a transgender person would be charged with misdemeanor sexual indecency with a child if they use a public changing facility that doesn't match their assigned sex at birth. 

According to the bill, sex is defined as a person's biological "anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth." The bill also defines public changing facilities as restrooms, bathrooms, locker rooms, or shower rooms but doesn't include a private dressing area in commercial clothing stores.

While several Republican lawmakers abstained from the vote, the bill was approved on a 19-7 vote in the 35-member Senate. The bill will now head to the GOP-run state House.

The bill comes amidst an upsurge of anti-transgender legislation and increasingly hostile rhetoric against transgender people in largely red states. More than 175 bills targeting transgender people's rights have been introduced this year, according to the Human Rights Campaign

"What this is is an attack on the continued existence in public of transgender people, and the criminalization of being transgender in public," said Cathryn Oakley, state legislative director and senior counsel at the Human Rights Campaign.

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According to the Human Rights Campaign, more bathroom ban bills have been filed in 2023 than in any previous year. And the Arkansas legislation is more restrictive compared to other bathroom ban bills passed in other states. 

The legislation goes even further than the now-repealed North Carolina bathroom bill, which faced widespread boycotts and protests after it was enacted in 2016. Unlike the Arkansas bill, the North Carolina law did not include criminal penalties.

Despite the retaliation seen over the former North Carolina law, GOP lawmakers have introduced a flood of bills with similar restrictions. Arkansas Legislature has another bill pending that would prevent transgender people at public schools from using bathrooms that match their gender identity.

Similar laws have been enacted in Alabama, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Lawsuits have been filed challenging the Oklahoma and Tennessee laws.

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Arkansas Legislation worries transgender community

Although the Arkansas bill has some exemptions, including allowing parents and guardians to accompany children under the age of 7 to public restrooms, the legislation worries the transgender community.

Little Rock transgender activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy and her partner Beck Major, who is also transgender, said they would be left with a difficult decision to make.

With a two-year-old son, the couple said they would have to eventually decide whether to send him into public restrooms alone or risk being charged under the law.

"Those are two horrible choices for a parent to make," Beck Major said. "What choice would you make?"

Others have expressed concerns over facing further harassment in public restrooms if the bill becomes law. 

Kathy Brown-Nichols, of Arkansas, who describes herself as a butch lesbian, said she's already regularly harassed and questioned when she uses the women's restroom in public because of her appearance.

"They are putting a big bullseye on people that are different," she said.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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