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Tuesday, November 3, 2026Nov 3

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Vote could require students in Tennessee to use bathrooms that match their sex at birth

Henry Seaton, a transgender high school senior, listens during a House subcommittee hearing Tuesday about a bill seeking to require school children to use restrooms according to the gender on their birth certificates. (Photo: Erik Schelzig / AP)
Henry Seaton, a transgender high school senior, listens during a House subcommittee hearing Tuesday about a bill seeking to require school children to use restrooms according to the gender on their birth certificates. (Photo: Erik Schelzig / AP) Henry Seaton, a transgender high school senior, listens during a House subcommittee hearing Tuesday about a bill seeking to require school children to use restrooms according to the gender on their birth certificates. (Photo: Erik Schelzig / AP)
photo Henry Seaton, a transgender high school senior, listens during a House subcommittee hearing Tuesday about a bill seeking to require school children to use restrooms according to the gender on their birth certificates. (Photo: Erik Schelzig / AP)

A House education subcommittee on Tuesday approved a controversial bill aimed at requiring students to use bathrooms that match their sex at birth.

The measure, sponsored by Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Old Hickory, and Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, would “require that a student use student restroom and locker room facilities that are assigned for use by persons of the same sex as the sex indicated on the student’s original birth certificate.”

The bill was debated for nearly an hour, in front of a room filled with both proponents and opponents of the measure.

Read the full story from our news partner, The Tennessean, here.