Utah House passes transgender bathroom ban

[Jessica_Rose]

Utah House passes transgender bathroom ban

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/utah-house-passes-transgender-bathroom-ban/ar-BB1gYmL8?cvid=b8ac5b67531d4fbce99855e64446ee4f&ei=12

Story by Brooke Migdon (19 Jan 2024)

Utah's Republican-controlled House voted Friday to pass a sweeping proposal to keep transgender people out of restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity in taxpayer-funded buildings, sending the measure to the state's majority GOP Senate for consideration just three days after the start of the session.

House Bill 257 aims to prohibit individuals from using gender-designated facilities that differ from their sex assigned at birth in government buildings, correctional facilities and domestic violence shelters unless they have undergone a transition-related surgery and legally amended the sex on their birth certificate.

One transgender teenager testifying before a state House panel on Wednesday pointed out to lawmakers that transgender people are statistically more likely to be sexually assaulted than cisgender people. A 2021 Williams Institute report found that trans people are four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crimes.

House Bill 257, if passed, would also amend state code with a rigid interpretation of sex, legally defining a female as "an individual whose biological reproductive system is of the general type that functions in a way that could produce ova," and a male as "an individual whose biological reproductive system is of the general type that functions to fertilize the ova of a female."