The law requires people to use bathrooms and locker rooms in public schools and government-owned buildings that match their sex assigned at birth.

Utah became the latest state to regulate bathroom access for transgender people after Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed a law Tuesday that requires people to use bathrooms and locker rooms in public schools and government-owned buildings that match their sex assigned at birth.

Under the legislation, transgender people can defend themselves against complaints by proving they had gender-affirming surgery and changed the sex on their birth certificate. Opponents noted not all states allow people to change their birth certificates and that many trans people don’t want to have surgery.

The legislation also requires schools to create “privacy plans” for trans students and others who may not be comfortable using group bathrooms, for instance by allowing them to use a faculty bathroom — something opponents say may “out” transgender children.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    69·
    9 months ago

    I love that they claim that they’re stopping women from being sexually assaulted by a man wearing a dress and going into the women’s room… as if bathrooms are so closely monitored that a man in standard men’s clothing couldn’t just slip into one if he wanted. I mean he could wear a janitor uniform if he was worried about it.

    • TurboWafflz@lemmy.world
      32·
      9 months ago

      Also, they always seem to forget that if you force trans people to use the restroom for their agab, you’re also forcing trans men into women’s restrooms. So now instead of having women they want to pretend are men in the women’s restroom you now have actual men in the women’s restroom.

      (But also gendered restrooms are just dumb everyone would be so much better off without them)

    • snooggums@kbin.social
      7·
      9 months ago

      I wouldn’t be surprised if it is worded in a way that would make it illegal for janitors who are men to be breaking the law if they enter a woman’s bathroom.

  • kescusay@lemmy.world
    53·
    9 months ago

    Utah joins 10 other states in declaring themselves shit-holes no one should think about visiting.

    • Aniki 🌱🌿@lemm.eeEnglish
      22·
      9 months ago

      It’s unfortunate that the most gorgeous state in the union was settled by religious fuckwads.

      • kescusay@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9·
        9 months ago

        …most gorgeous state in the union…

        I guess beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. Utah has a certain stark appeal to it I can see, but the sheer lush greenery of my native Oregon always wins me over.

        • Aniki 🌱🌿@lemm.eeEnglish
          5·
          9 months ago

          Utah has plenty of green-space you just need to climb a mountain to get to it. It’s perfect. It’s also not raining 75% of the time.

          • kescusay@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            9 months ago

            Mountains are fine, no complaint there… but my counterpoint would be that to reach a lush, green area, I can basically just step outside my front door.

            You’re not wrong about the rain, though.

        • agent_flounder@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          9 months ago

          I mean my beloved Colorado is far from ugly but Utah (or, well, Moab which is the only part I have seen in person so far) is fucking amazing to see. But I also think Arizona is gorgeous. Wyoming too. At some point it isn’t a contest it’s just, “these states are fucking amazing, holy shit.”

          Anyway it sucks Utah is overrun with zealots.

  • tanja
    27·
    9 months ago

    Could’ve worked on tackling climate change, inflation, homelessness, (some form of) European style health care, labour rights, or expand public transit, but they choose to discriminate against transgender people for zero gain.

    Why are the United States so wird?

    And how do you even enforce such a law effectively?
    Many people have very good passing, and there have already been (self video-) recorded cases of cisgender people getting “accused” of being trans by some transphobe.

    No one even wants these laws, at least most people don’t.

    And why is the headline so non-judgemental? “Regulates” isn’t a good fit for tyranny imo.

    • Shalakushka@kbin.social
      19·
      9 months ago

      These laws create an environment where bigots are empowered to point the finger and harass people with the veneer of civic duty. Bigots and shit heels want these laws, and red states seem full of them.

    • agent_flounder@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      9 months ago

      Why so weird? I guess a long history of religious zealotry, bigotry, slavery, etc. going back to the very beginning–the initial invasion by British colonists in the late 16th C. Apparently that kind of culture takes more than 500 years to overcome.

  • anon6789@lemmy.world
    19·
    9 months ago

    For those curious:

    At least 10 other states — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Tennessee — have passed laws that seek to regulate which bathrooms trans people can use, and nine states regulate the bathrooms that trans students can use at school. West Virginia’s Legislature is considering a transgender bathroom bill for students this year.

    In good news though:

    The Utah bill requires any new government buildings to include single-occupant bathrooms and asks that the state consider adding more of the bathrooms to increase privacy protections in existing government buildings.

    Yay! This actually eliminates the whole issue, and you get actual privacy unlike a normal public bathroom!

    It did not provide any funding for such upgrades.

    Facepalm…Nevermind.

  • ObsidianZed@lemmy.world
    19·
    9 months ago

    I’ll say it again, make ALL bathrooms genderless and non-communal. Individual rooms, walls floor to ceiling, complete with lockable door for each toilet. This saves us from soooo many other issues aside from this “debate.”

  • BetaBlake@lemmy.world
    19·
    9 months ago

    This is such a non-issue that they are trying to make into an issue, most restrooms should be gender-neutral anyways because who the fuck just trying to check out other people in the bathroom, people just want to get in and get out and the gender of the other people in there makes no difference to me.

    • i_like_birds@lemmy.world
      5·
      9 months ago

      Gender neutral private bathrooms? Sure Gender neutral community bathrooms? I’m a little uneasy. As a small female, the thought of being in a semi-private area with just any guy gives me the chills. Trans people can share my bathroom, but I’d rather keep the other dudes away please.

  • Technofrood@feddit.uk
    9·
    9 months ago

    Do have to wonder (well not really it’s going to be horrendous) what these people’s response to a transman using a woman’s toilet would be.

    • Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world
      2·
      9 months ago

      They don’t think about it.

      Getting attacked or forcibly ejected from women’s bathrooms where they already feel desperately exposed make a lot of trans guys so gun shy from amalgamated bad experiences that they develop bladder and intestinal problems from refusing to go and tend to retreat from public entirely due to general anxiety. Some of pro move one can adopt to combat this is basically never going out without a female chaperone who can vouch for you…

      But it’s still a severe restriction of your general comfort going out of your house for more than a couple of hours at a time.

      End result is you basically rarely see trans men in public bathrooms so the bigots basically never are inconvenienced with considerations that they exist much less need consider the welfare of them.

  • Sentient Loom@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    6·
    9 months ago

    There shouldn’t be laws about who can use what bathroom. Just let people use the bathroom. It really has nothing to do with gender ideology. Just let people use the bathroom even if you reject transgender identities.