Public school bathrooms and changing areas for students would have to be restricted based on students’ sex assigned at birth under a Republican-sponsored bill adopted Thursday by the state House.
The legislation would require K-12 schools, public universities and other educational institutions ensure multi-occupancy restrooms and changing areas are restricted by the sex listed on a student’s original birth certificate.
“I believe, as do many parents, that a loving creator has made human beings in his image. I believe that the all-wise creator has created two biological sexes, male and female, equally dignified in his eyes, but distinctly different,” said Representative Joseph Fox (R-Fremont), a bill sponsor. “May not another class period go by without our chamber taking a courageous stand to pass this critical, commonsense, creation-rooted legislation.”
Democrats noted public discussions on the budget standoff that has left K-12 schools, public universities and community colleges uncertain on their funding were set the day as the House debated and approved the bill on a party-line vote. Ten Democrats were absent or abstained.
Representative Laurie Pohutsky (D-Livonia) called the bill a distraction deployed by Republicans that uses transgender teenagers as political pawns while the state budget remains unfinished less than a month from the deadline to avert a partial government shutdown.
“There’s been no meaningful work to get us any further away from a budget shutdown than we already are, but also it’s a violation of our civil rights act,” she said. “It’s just using trans kids as a scapegoat and bullying them.”
Representative Emily Dievendorf (D-Lansing) said the bill is impractical.
“Unless schools would like to institute gender checks on anybody that they suspect, there is no way to really enforce that legislation,” said Dievendorf.
The bill now goes to the Michigan Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.
Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) said the bill is dead on arrival.
“We will not be taking this legislation up and we wish that the Republicans in the House of Representatives were as obsessed with passing the state budget as they are with kids using the bathroom,” she said in a statement from her office.
