NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Tennessee lawmakers have passed a bill that would put public schools and districts at risk of civil lawsuits if they let transgender students or employees use multi-person bathrooms or locker rooms that do not reflect their gender at birth.
The state Senate voted 21-7 Wednesday in favor of the legislation, which needs at least one more vote before heading to Republican Gov. Bill Lee. The House passed a slightly different version earlier this week.
This action in Tennessee marks the furthest a “bathroom bill” has gotten in any state in years, according to the Human Rights Campaign. The topic drew national notoriety in North Carolina in 2016 when a law limiting transgender bathroom use sparked a wave of backlash, prompting cancelations of major events and some economic expansion plans.
“The distinctive nature of this bill is how far it’s gotten – it’s the furthest bathroom bill to advance so far this year and certainly the furthest any bathroom bill has advanced since 2015/2016,” said Wyatt Ronan, spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign.
Like other GOP-led statehouses focusing on culture wars this year, Tennessee lawmakers have advanced several LGTBQ-related measures that critics have slammed as discriminatory. Most notably, Gov. Lee signed a different proposal this year that bars transgender athletes from playing girls’ public high school or middle school sports.