by Andy Birkey
Cross-posted from The Column
An anti-transgender bill was introduced in the Minnesota House on Wednesday that could scale back gender-inclusive schools policies across the state if passed.
HF0041 would bar schools from allowing transgender and gender nonconforming students from using the facilities of their gender. It also defines “sex” in state law as a restrictive categories of male and female (The majority of research on sex and gender has shown that both are highly variable in humans).
The bill states in part:
The purpose of this section is to protect and provide for the
privacy and safety of all students enrolled in public schools and to maintain order and dignity
in restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, showers, and other facilities where students
may be in various states of undress in the presence of other students.
Subd. 2. Definitions. (a) For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the
meanings given them.
(b) “Sex” means the physical condition of being male or female, which is determined
by a person’s chromosomes and is identified at birth by a person’s anatomy.
(c) “Public school” means a public school under section 120A.05, subdivisions 9, 11,
13, and 17, and a charter school under chapter 124E.
Subd. 3. Student physical privacy protection. (a) A public school student restroom,
locker room, changing room, and shower room accessible by multiple students at the same
time shall be designated for the exclusive use by students of the male sex only or by students
of the female sex only.
(b) A public school student restroom, locker room, changing room, and shower room
that is designated for the exclusive use of one sex shall be used only by members of that
sex.
(c) In any other public school facility or setting where a student may be in a state of
undress in the presence of other students, school personnel shall provide separate, private,
and safe areas designated for use by students based on their sex
A similar piece of legislation passed the Minnesota House in an omnibus bill in 2015 but did not become law.
The bills authors are Republicans Duane Quam of Byron and Steve Drazkowski of Mazeppa.
Photo: Duane Quam, author of HF0041.
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Only public schools?
Posted by: Michael Lhotka | Jan 05, 2017 at 07:06 PM
The bill attacks the bill of rights, attacks the fundamentals of what this country stood for, and represents hate, it is a hate crime by not only the u.s. supreme court but also the United Nations. Transgender people are becoming a commonality in society and many people if younger generations are supportive of those that were given the sex organs at birth. In some cases (more than half) it was either the parents or the doctors that made that choice not knowing the complexity of gender identity isn't just the reproductive organs. The people proposing this bill show a classic case of insecure sexual identity. Meaning they don't know if they are straight or gay, so most likely bisexual but were raised in a home with a stern hand that everyone must be straight. The need to go through psychological testing and therapy to discover why they hate someone. I propose a bill HF0041Bi that requires anyone that suggests to isolate or discriminate LGBT need to go through a psychological profile testing and therapy.
Posted by: Jeremy Scott Listerud | Jan 08, 2017 at 04:31 AM