During Thursday’s Education Committee hearing, the president of an anti-abortion group said it is “inherently wrong” for schools to allow transgender students to share bathrooms with students who would be uncomfortable with that.
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Today, HRC condemned the decision by the leadership of the Wisconsin Assembly to allow a hearing today on disgraceful anti-transgender legislation that would expose trans and gender nonconforming students to heightened risk of bullying, harassment and discrimination.
Kremer says the bill does not violate federal law, but instead protects the privacy and safety of all students.
Dozens of students packed the hearing room in opposition to the bill.
However, Noah Anderson, a junior at Madison East High School who identifies as neither male nor female, said the bill is “transphobia and bigotry that dates back to the beginning of the LGBT movement, and it has no place in our schools”.
One Madison high school student, who identifies in gender neutral ways, testified their school has already taken steps to address the concerns by opening a multi-stalled unisex restroom, which the bill would no longer permit.
“The bill, as introduced, will not only negate local efforts to fashion local solutions but will likely create new legal concerns for schools”, said Dan Rossmiller, lobbyist for the Wisconsin Association of School Boards.
The bill defines gender as being “the physical condition of being male or female, as determined by an individual’s chromosomes and identified at birth by that individual’s anatomy”, according to an analysis of the bill from the Legislative Reference Bureau.
Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum, and Sen.
Allowing transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms with the opposite biological gender, she said, “would create social chaos that could have irrevocable harm for students”.
But schools would have to provide private accommodations for transgender students that ask for them. Steve Nass, of Whitewater, said the state wouldn’t have jurisdiction over private schools despite the vouchers.
“Don’t put 424 school districts and 860,000 students in the middle of all of this…I have a lot of confidence in my people”, he said.
This means transgender students would not be able to use restrooms that align with their gender identity. “I would not want to be on your side of the table defending it”. Not only is the bill-known as AB 469-shameful and horrific public policy, passing it would put the state in conflict with federal law.
It’s unclear whether the bill will pass the Legislature when lawmakers return in January.
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Gov. Scott Walker said in October that he thought there should be clarity in the law on the issue, but he has not commented specifically on the proposal.
