Tennessee Bill Preserves the Right for Students to Use Single-Sex Bathrooms

Tennessee legislators introduced a bill preserving American students’ right to use single-sex bathrooms and locker rooms.

Introduced by state Rep. Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) and state Sen. Mike Bell (R-Riceville),  HB1233/SB1367 would allow students to obtain a “reasonable accommodation” from their school to avoid sharing restrooms with transgender students.

The bill allows students to sue public schools if their needs are not being met.

It passed the House K-12 Subcommittee Tuesday evening and will move on to a full House vote.

Zachary said his bill came from school administrations’ frustration with handling bathroom access based on students’ gender identities.

“There is a high school that has reached out to me, they are having to (deal with) a problem with boys using the girls’ restroom,” Zachary told the Tennessean.

“And they feel like they are handcuffed, and there’s not much they can do about it. This bill takes care of that. It stops all that and just provides absolute clarity,” he added.

But not all people are for the bill.

Chris Sanders, the executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project, says the legislation would send a destructive message to the transgender community.

“(The Legislature) is going on the attack against trans students and trans youth,” he said. “Now, the Legislature comes along and says, ‘Hey everybody, there’s this category of people that we will protect you from if you want to be protected from.'”

Students would have to provide a written request for the accommodations, and they could sue if they request accommodations but later “encounter a person of the opposite sex in a multi-occupancy restroom,” according to the bill.

Zachary said transgender students would by default use the restroom according to their biological sex. If transgender students request accommodations for bathroom access, schools would be required to let them use single-occupancy bathrooms.

Tennessee is not the only state coming up with transgender legislation.

Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said Monday that she intends to sign a bill passed by her state’s legislature that keeps girls’ and women’s sports to biological females only.

The Mississippi state House passed a bill banning transgender athletes from playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams. The Montana House passed a similar bill.