The 2017 version of Tennessee’s “Bathroom Bill” may not be completely dead, but it is on life-support after failing to get the required motion to be heard in the Senate Education Committee.
The bill, which would require students in public schools and higher-ed institutions to use restroom and locker facilities that correspond with the gender indicated on their birth certificate, is unlikely to move to House Committee next week.
The attempt to regulate which bathroom a student uses is of a particular danger to transgender students, who are safer using a facility that matches their outward gender expression, according to the Tennessee Equality Project.
During a press conference yesterday, TEP chairwoman Ginger Leonard referenced a study conducted by the Williams Institute at the Univeristy of California Los Angeles School of Law that reported more than 70 percent of transgender people surveyed have been verbally and physically harassed, attacked, or denied entries to public restrooms because of gender identity.
There are no reports of any attacks carried out by transgender individuals who used their preferred gender identity to gain access to a restroom.
There are still five more bills up for consideration in the Tennessee Legislature that have been deemed a threat to the LGBTQ community by associated advocacy organizations.
