Bathroom Bills
WHAT ARE BATHROOM BILLS?
A bathroom bill is legislature that has to do with access to public facilities and trans people. Bathroom bills specifically deal with sex-segregated facilities, such as bathrooms and locker rooms. Bills can either be for or against trans rights.
Gender-inclusive bathroom sign. From Huffington Post.
BATHROOM BILL TIMELINE
March 2018: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos affirms in a congressional hearing that the United States Education Department will not be taking on cases regarding trans bathroom rights. “Until the Supreme Court or Congress clarifies the law with regard to transgender access to bathrooms, athletic locker rooms and athletic teams, that is not an area where law has been clarified,” DeVos says. “This department is not going to make law. We are going to continue to enforce laws that we are given to do” (Johnson).
May-August 2017: Texas House of Representatives twice fails to pass bathroom bills aimed to require using the bathroom that aligns with your birth gender. This is very unexpected, considering the social conservative nature of the state.
March 2017: North Carolina repeals the now-infamous HB2, which required people to use the bathroom of their birth gender, “after months of acrimony over the bill and a seeming inability to find middle ground after numerous efforts” (Fausset).
March 2016: The North Carolina legislature meets to discuss HB2. It is passed and signed into law the same day it was introduced.
2015: A wave of trans-friendly bathroom bills begins to pass around the country. “It’s a sign change,” said the mayor’s director of LGBT affairs. “We’re labeling restrooms as what they are: restrooms, not gender-monitored spaces.” In July the Justice Department took the side of Gavin Grimm, a Virginia high-school student who argued that he should be allowed to use school bathrooms that match his gender identity. In April President Obama opened the first gender-neutral bathroom in the White House.
Late 2014 and early 2015: Texas and several other states introduce “bathroom surveillance” bills that would require transgender people to use bathrooms that match their gender assigned at birth.
Before 2014: A growing movement to install gender-neutral bathrooms at university campuses. During this period, 150 university campuses install gender-neutral bathrooms, along with a growing number of high schools. The movement for gender-inclusive bathrooms in public facilities started at least as early as 2009.
Timeline adapted from National Conference of State Legislatures
PRO AND ANTI BATHROOM BILL PROTESTS
 “John Erler, dressed as Moses, holds what he called "Commandments number one and number two," during a press conference opposing SB 6 in the Rotunda at the Texas Capitol Extension following the first public hearing for the bill on March 7, 2017.” (Tamir Kalifa, American Statesman) |  “OLYMPIA – Protesters gathered on the Capitol steps last February to denounce a rule that transgender people can use public restrooms and locker rooms based on their gender identity rather than their anatomy.” (Jim Camden / The Spokesman-Review) |  “Protesters in Gainesville, Florida, raise their voice against an anti-trans bill.” (socialistworker.org) |
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 Protesters in North Carolina exercise their first amendment right and protest the controversial HB2 Bill, one of the first bathroom bills introduced. |
KIDS FIGHTING BACK
Nova Maday is a senior at Palatine High School. High school is difficult in general, but Nova has a big problem: she isn’t allowed to use the women’s locker room because she was assigned male at birth. Instead, she must use a special private stall to change for gym class. Different states have different laws in regard to trans bathrooms. In Growing Up Blue, we see Gray deal with bathroom laws in her school. Gray decides to use the bathroom of her choosing, and faces backlash from the community for it.
Here is a link to Nova telling her story: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/media/95353263-132.html
Some students have been completely denied the use of a bathroom. Take 6-year-old Emma Smith, for example. Her teacher would not allow her to use the girls restroom and told her, “You’re going to have to hold it” (Nichols). That was not the first time the girl was made to urinate on herself. Emma lives in North Carolina, a state which has had a history of discriminatory laws against trans people.
Read more about her story fighting House Bill 2 and House Bill 142 here: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/emma-transgender-north-carolina_us_5999d044e4b0a2608a6ce85a