SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah’s transgender college students will be banned from living in dorms that match their gender identity under the bill that cleared the final legislative hurdles Monday.
The Capitol, which had already passed the measure, has re-adjusted and approved it with a bit of a tweak after a Senate debate that one Republican told Trans People.
It passed in both rooms with a veto margin and now headed to the Republican government desk. Spencer Coxwho supports this measure. The Associated Press left an email to the governor’s office for comment.
Under the bill, students from state public universities and universities can only enter and exit gendered spaces, such as dorm buildings, locker rooms and bathrooms, which correspond to the gender assigned at birth. Otherwise, transgender students can live in single rooms in coed dorm buildings.
The bill goes a step further than existing Utah laws and 11 other states that have made transgender girls and women come from. Women’s bathroom in public schools, and in some cases other government facilities. This is the first transgender restrictions expressly aimed at university housing, but some states have extensive laws that can be interpreted as applicable to dormitories.
Bathroom laws are effective in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah. Ohio will take effect on February 25th. A judge puts enforcement on hold in Idaho.
Republican legislative leader pledges to deal with campus housing after his mother’s viral social media posts called the University of Utah because he didn’t provide advance notice that his daughter would have a transsuit mate I did.
Utah State sophomore Mercy Robertson is a transgender woman and became a resident advisor for the women’s dorms and was assigned to share a suite with freshman Avery Saltzman. After learning about Robertson’s identity, Saltzman requested a transfer of the room, and after receiving it, her mother posted about it online.
Robertson told lawmakers on a recent committee that life has been “extremely unbearable” since online attention has led to harassment and death threats. But she said it was the most painful thing to see the legislation target her specifically.
Saltzman testified that current policies that allow trans women to be placed in dorms made her feel uncomfortable. She said she must decide whether female students will “put themselves at risk” or face social stigma for refusing to live with a trans person.
Eagle Mountain’s Rep. Stephanie Grisius, Republican sponsor of the bill, said it needs to support the privacy needs of female students.
Rep. Sahara Hayes, a Mill Creek Democrat and Utah’s only LGBTQ+ lawmaker, said he didn’t violate anyone’s privacy more than Robertson.
This is the fourth consecutive year, she said, and the Republican supermajority has pushed laws aimed at Utah’s small transgender population.
In 2022, Utah banned trans girls from playing Girls’ School Sports. The judge has Temporarily blocked The ban was enforced and a trial this spring was scheduled. 2023, state Medical care that maintains prohibited gender For transgender youth. And last year, Cox I signed a bathroom ban to the law.
“The LGBTQ community is very tired,” Hayes said in tears on the floor of her house. “We don’t know how we’re targeted, so we’re so tired of scaring each year when this body meets, and that’s what’s inevitable.”
In the Senate, Senator David Hinkins is a home approved by Brigham Young University, a private Utah school run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to smoke and drink alcohol in violation of rules. We shared how he was once kicked out. The Ferron Republicans then found other homes. He said it is appropriate behaviour for those who cannot follow rules and social expectations.
In his statement clearly aimed at trans people affected by the bill, he said they should be held responsible if they fit in.
Sen. Daniel Thatcher of West Valley City was the only Republican from either room against the bill. He criticized his colleagues for repeatedly passing laws that said it would harm small groups of vulnerable people. He said the bill is an invitation to another lawsuit.
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