BATON ROUGE, La. — A bill that that would effectively bar transgender people in Louisiana from using restrooms, locker rooms and sleeping quarters that correspond with their gender identity — in public schools, jails and domestic violence shelters — advanced out of a state legislative committee Monday.
While a handful of other GOP-controlled states have recently passed legislation dubbed “bathroom bills.” LGBTQ+ advocates say Louisiana’s bill is among the more expansive and restrictive in the country. Opponents say the bill would further harm an already vulnerable population and put them at increased risk of harassment. Proponents of the measure, which has been titled the Women’s Safety Protection Act, say it was created to protect cisgender women and girls from sexual assault and harassment.
The bill, which passed out of bipartisan committee without objection, will head to the GOP-dominated House floor next week for debate. If the bill receives approval in the lower chamber, it will move to the Senate.
Louisiana’s bill would require public schools to designate each restroom or changing room for “the exclusive use of either females, males, or members of the same family.” Similar rules would apply to bathrooms and sleeping quarters in state prisons, juvenile detention centers and state-managed domestic violence shelters.
The bill defines female and male according to one’s biological reproductive system rather than one’s gender identity.
“I’m standing for the basic understanding that there are biological difference between females and males that create the need for separate privacy spaces,” said GOP Rep. Roger Wilder III, who sponsored the measure. “This bill’s goal is to put women first by affording them confidence in their privacy and safety.”
Opponents say if the goal is to protect women, it should also seek to protect transgender women. They argue that the measure would marginalize, discriminate against, and “deny the humanity and…
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