La. gov. signs bill mandating students use bathrooms based on their sex, not gender identity
Louisiana has become the latest state to require students and inmates to use facilities that align with their sex instead of their self-declared gender identity as pushback to LGBT ideology continues at the state level.
Louisiana’s Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed HB 608, known as the Women’s Safety and Protection Act, into law Monday. The measure, approved by the Republican-controlled Louisiana House of Representatives in an 80-17 vote and passed by the Republican-controlled Senate in a 29-10 vote, received bipartisan support. Ten House Democrats joined all House Republicans in backing the measure, while one Senate Democrat joined all Senate Republicans in voting for it.
The legislation recognizes the biological differences between men and women and establishes definitions for the terms “boy,” “father,” “female,” “girl,” “male,” “man” and “mother.” It explicitly identifies “sex” as “an individual’s biological sex, either male or female, as observed or clinically verified at birth,” stressing that “gender identity and other subjective terms shall not apply to this Part and shall not be used as synonyms or substitutes for sex.”
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The law requires domestic violence shelters, public schools, correctional facilities and juvenile detention centers to designate multi-occupancy restrooms, changing rooms and sleeping quarters for exclusive use by either males or females and ensure that only members of each sex use the appropriately designated areas. The measure provides a right to action, enabling anyone alleging a violation of the law to seek judicial relief and/or damages.
The measure received praise from the religious freedom legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom, which said: “States have a duty to protect the privacy, safety, and dignity of women and young girls. Yet certain advocacy organizations — and even the Biden administration through its recent Title IX Rule — are demanding states to tear down the long-standing tradition of having distinct facilities for men and women,” said ADF Senior Counsel Matt Sharp in a statement shared with The Christian Post on Wednesday.
“This radical social experiment, which especially harms children and women fleeing abusive situations, flies in the face of common sense and even the plain language of Title IX and other federal laws,” added Sharp, maintained that “letting men into women’s spaces — whether at public schools, correctional facilities, or domestic violence shelters — is an invasion of privacy and a threat to their safety.”
Sharp asserted that “protecting women from inappropriate exposure to men is not only legal, but also an important duty of the officials in charge of watching over their safety.”
The passage of the Women’s Safety and Protection Act comes as policies allowing trans-identified individuals to enter opposite-sex facilities have led to safety concerns for women. In 2021, Loudoun County, Virginia, made national news after it became public that a male student who identifies as “gender-fluid” sexually assaulted a female student in the girls’ bathroom at one of the high schools in its school district.
The school district faced allegations of a cover-up as the assault happened as the district was considering the formal implementation of a policy to allow trans-identified students to enter opposite-sex bathrooms and the public didn't find out about it until after the school board had already voted and passed the policy.
The exposure of young girls to male genitalia in intimate spaces is also a concern, as LGBT nondiscrimination laws in California led to a Korean spa allowing a trans-identified man to be naked in the women’s locker room and spa area where naked girls were present.
Similarly, corrections facilities allowing trans-identified men to be housed in women’s prisons has also led to female inmates being subject to sexual assaults.
According to the LGBT Movement Advancement Project, which opposes legislation like HB 608, Louisiana is one of 12 states that ban “transgender people from using bathrooms and facilities consistent with their gender identity.” Louisiana joins Alabama, Mississippi and North Dakota as states where people are required to use facilities that align with their sex in K-12 schools and “at least some government-owned facilities.”
Meanwhile, laws in Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Tennessee only apply to public schools. Florida and Utah require individuals to use facilities that correspond with their biological sex in “all government-owned buildings and spaces, including K-12 schools, colleges, and more.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
