The House sponsor of a Tennessee bill that targets transgender people withdrew her legislation on Monday.
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“Ours only applies to the bathrooms and locker rooms in our public schools and colleges that may be used by young people”, he said.
For a time, the bill was thought dead, but a Tennessee committee resurrected the legislation and advanced it earlier this month.
Public schools shall 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.
Proponents, including the Alliance for Defending Freedom and the Family Action Council of Tennessee, as well as the bill’s sponsors – Lynn, and Sen.
Another factor that “definitely didn’t” have an effect on her decision is the potential loss of .2 billion annually in Title IX funding as the legislation explicitly violates transgender protections outlined in the federal policy.
“There are still some issues that are outstanding, and we don’t have enough time left, but in the meantime, our school districts are largely doing what this bill says, and I want to thank our administrators for protecting the rights of all students”, Lynn told reporters Monday.
“Tennessee lawmakers were wise to learn from the mistakes of North Carolina and MS and halt this cruel legislation that would have only worsened the marginalization and harassment transgender students already face on a daily basis”, said HRC President Chad Griffin.
The debate over bathrooms comes as the legislature began what is expected to be its final days of the 2016 session, which has featured a variety of “culture war” issues.
The actual override attempt is not expected to occur on the House floor until Wednesday.
Henry Seaton, a senior at Beech High School in Hendersonville and a transgender student, said he couldn’t understand why lawmakers were targeting people like him now.
“I feel very passionately about this issue”, she said.
Bill Haslam had implied that he might veto the bill, which has now been withdrawn.
Marisa Richmond, lobbyist for the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition, said the petition signers “represent Tennesseans of all walks of life who recognize that the bathroom bill is risky”.
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Lynn said she was not swayed by a letter to the GOP leaders of both chambers from the executives of 60 businesses (including Cigna, Hilton Hotels, Dow Chemical, and Alcoa) stating their opposition to the measure, saying she had received no such letters herself. “The thousands of Tennesseans whose signatures we deliver here today know that this legislation is bad for Tennesseans and bad for Tennessee”.
