#hb 1612

Virginia's proposed "trans bathroom bill" also requires schools to out trans students

Schools must be safe and welcoming for all students, but bills like HB 1612 pose a threat to transgender youth. Join GLSEN Up to support LGBTQ students: www.glsen.org/glsenup

"These laws are unconstitutional and violate federal law and are incredibly harmful to the trans people in the state and harmful to the economy of the state,” [said Chase Strangio, staff attorney at the ACLU]. “It's shocking that lawmakers continue to introduce them."

(January 6th, 2017)

In 2017, there have been at least two pieces of major anti-trans legislation introduced in the U.S. so far. Most recently, in Virginia, the bill HB 1612, called the “Physical Privacy Act” in the words of its proponents, was pre-filed on January 3rd. (A summary, date of pre-filing, and the full text of the bill are available from an official website of the Virginia legislature: Content warning for cissexist/transphobic language.) It goes past other recent anti-trans bills, such as North Carolina’s HB 2, in its severity.

Like similar anti-trans bills, it mandates that people only use public facilities (restrooms or changing facilities in any government-affiliated space, such as schools) for their assigned sex at birth, regardless of their actual current gender. The bill specifies that transgender people who have changed the gender on their birth certificate are still restricted to facilities for the gender on their original birth certificate.  It would allow people to sue the state for “physical and emotional pain and suffering” if they find a trans person using the same restroom as them.  It also mandates the outing of transgender students to parents if the school becomes aware that they are transgender, regardless of the wishes or safety concerns of students.

The governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe (Democratic Party) has, however, indicated he will veto HB 1612 if it passes the Republican-majority General Assembly. (Washington Post.)

In Texas, as well, another commonly-termed “bathroom bill,” SB 6, was introduced January 5th. (BBC News.) and the state’s attorney general has advocated the outing of trans students as the bill in Virginia would also mandate. (Slate.com.) (The opinion, stated in response to Fort Worth Independent School District policy that protects students’ right to privacy including in terms of gender identity and expression, has no direct legal effect. (ThinkProgress.)

North Carolina’s anti-trans law was expected be repealed in December 2016 after multiple legal challenges, but the repeal attempt on December 31st was unsuccessful. (This was despite the repeal of a Charlotte, NC ordinance protecting LGBT+ rights on December 21st which NC governor Pat McRory had demanded in exchange for repeal of the state law. (charlottenc.gov.)