Battle brewing over transgender bathroom laws in state capitals

A fierce debate is playing out in state capitals throughout the country over which bathrooms and locker rooms transgender students in public schools should use.

South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard faces a deadline next week to act on a bill passed by the state legislature that would require students to use bathrooms or locker rooms for the gender that corresponds with their “chromosomes and anatomy” at birth, what would be the first-of-its kind law in the country.

If Daugaard, a Republican, doesn’t sign or veto the bill by Tuesday, it automatically becomes law.

In all, more than two dozen similar bills have been filed in state legislatures across the country in the first two months of 2016, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

“This is the new frontier in the battle over LGBT rights,” said Paul Brewer, political scientist at the University of Delaware who has studied public opinion on LGBT issues.

The so-called “bathroom law” fights have also been launched in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

In Oklahoma, legislation has been introduced that calls for withholding of state aid if a parent files a merited complaint that a school district has allowed a student to use a sex-segregated bathroom or changing facility that doesn’t align with the student’s gender at birth.

A proposal introduced last month in Virginia would require that local school boards develop policies that require restrooms and locker rooms be only used by “individuals whose anatomical sex matches” the gender designation of the facilities. Students violating the policy could face fines up to $50.

In Washington state, a bill made it out of a Senate committee last month that would reverse the state’s two-month old policy that allows transgender people to use bathrooms and locker rooms in public buildings that are consistent with their gender identity.

“What this amounts to is legislators saying we didn’t win the gay marriage fight, so let’s go after someone else,” said Ashley Joubert-Gaddis, director of operations at The Center for Equality, a Sioux Falls, S.D. advocacy group that is lobbying Daugaard to veto the proposed bathroom law.