Utah Republicans sent a transgender bathroom bill to Gov. Spencer Cox (R) on Friday after much back and forth over the details of the legislation.
The bill, called HB257 or “Sex-based Designations for Privacy, Anti-bullying and Women’s Opportunities,” would mandate that Utahns use bathrooms and locker rooms in government buildings and public schools that align with their sex characteristics rather than their “gender identity.”
The Utah House passed HB257 last week and sent it to the Senate, where members made several changes to the bill, including allowing transgender people to use their preferred bathroom in domestic violence and homeless shelters. Senators ultimately approved the bill on Thursday after also relaxing limitations on bathroom usage — a move that was later reversed.
On Friday, the House initially declined several of the Senate’s changes, but lawmakers met before adopting a fifth version of the bill to work out their disagreements, KSL.com reported.
“Six lawmakers met briefly before adopting and approving a fifth substitute version of HB257, which bill sponsor Rep. Kera Birkeland, R-Morgan, said makes it ‘extremely clear’ that students cannot be charged simply for using a restroom that doesn’t align with their sex designation at birth,” according to the report.
The bill ultimately bars individuals from using a bathroom or locker room that aligns with their transgender identity unless they have had a “primary sex characteristic surgical procedure” and have officially changed the sex on their birth certificates, and includes a criminal trespass charges for those who break the law.
The bill would allow sex-confused children and adults to use unisex or single-occupancy bathrooms in government and state-funded buildings and calls for the construction of more single-use stalls and unisex bathrooms at state-funded facilities.
“The legislation also requires schools to create ‘privacy plans’ for trans students and others that may not be comfortable using group bathrooms, for instance by allowing them to use a faculty bathroom — something opponents say may ‘out’ transgender children,” ABC News reported.
Transgender activists often insist that individuals who identify as a different sex than they were born have a right to use facilities that align with their created identity. The outcome of this push around the country has resulted in biological men who believe they are women — some of whom are still attracted to women — accessing women’s spaces.
For example, in New York, a male-born transgender was convicted in 2022 for raping a woman while being kept in the women’s section of Riker’s Island. In Wisconsin, female inmates have been forced to share a prison with a male-born transgender who raped his ten-year-old daughter. There have been other news stories documenting men who identify as women allegedly exposing their genitals in front of minors in female-designated locker rooms.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.