Florida’s legislature Wednesday passed a bill that bans transgender people from using many bathrooms and changing areas that match their gender identity, on penalty of criminal trespass charges, in the latest spate of anti-LGBTQ legislation that has been taken up by state lawmakers.
A small number of Republicans joined their Democratic colleagues in opposing House Bill 1521, which applies to schools, government buildings, prisons and detention centers. It now heads to the desk of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who is expected to sign it into law. DeSantis — who has privately indicated that he intends to seek the 2024 GOP presidential nomination — has tacked to the hard right on social issues such as abortion, as he courts primary voters by showing off his conservative vision for the state and pitches Florida as a “blueprint” for the rest of the country.
The bill that passed was more limited than earlier drafts, which would have extended the ban to facilities in many private businesses. It is opposed by LGBTQ and civil liberties activists, who say that it criminalizes transgender people for ordinary behavior. “Our state government should be focused on solving pressing issues, not terrorizing people who are simply trying to use the restroom and exist in public,” said Jon Harris Maurer, public policy director at Equality Florida, an LGBTQ advocacy group.
The legislation is “part of a pernicious, degrading, and systematic attempt to dehumanize one of our most marginalized communities,” said Human Rights Watch.
The nine GOP legislators who wrote the initial draft of the bill did not respond to requests for comment overnight Wednesday. In the draft legislation, they write that they aim to “maintain public safety, decency, decorum, and privacy.” Researchers have noted that trans women are much more likely than their cisgender counterparts to be victims of violence.
It is not clear how such a law — which defines sex using characteristics such as “chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, and internal and external genitalia present at birth” — would be enforced. Kaleb Hobson-Garcia, a transgender man, said at a hearing that despite his beard and deep voice, the bill would require him to use the women’s restroom, potentially alarming those around him and putting him in danger.
“You’re not trying to protect people,” he said.
Bathroom bills have passed in Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa and elsewhere, amid a nationwide effort to roll back transgender rights. North Carolina’s 2016 bathroom bill — the first of its kind — is estimated to have cost it $3.7 billion after the governments of some blue states, as well as businesses, boycotted travel there in protest. That law was largely repealed in 2017, though some of the boycott strategy’s earliest supporters are now reconsidering its effectiveness following the latest wave of anti-trans legislation.
Florida — whose lawmakers have passed at least four anti-LGBTQ bills in recent days — is showing no indication that it will rein in the efforts. Also on Wednesday, the state Senate approved a bill which prohibits educators from talking about sexual orientation and gender identity through eighth grade, and prevents teachers and students from being required to use pronouns that do not match the sex that an individual was assigned at birth.
Critics have characterized it an expansion of a 2022 law — which critics call the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — that bars discussing sexual orientation and gender identity through third grade. Supporters say it protects children from inappropriate discussions.
Earlier this week, the state legislature also passed a bill allowing health-care providers and insurance companies to deny services “on the basis of conscience-based objections,” which rights group say could disproportionately affect LGBTQ people. Another measure passed Monday urges Congress to stop the military from “overemphasizing” diversity and inclusion efforts, including those aimed at diversifying gender identity and sexuality in the armed forces.
