Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs law restricting school restroom use by transgender people

Arkansas has become the latest GOP state to ban transgender people from using restrooms at public schools that align with their gender identity after Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed the ban into law on Tuesday. 

The legislation will prohibit transgender people from using multi-person restrooms and locker rooms at prekindergarten through 12th-grade public and charter schools.  The bill signed by the Republican governor will go into effect this summer.

The state's ban makes Arkansas the fourth state to enact such restrictions at public schools.

But the ban could go even further due to a pending bill that would criminalize transgender adults from using public changing facilities that match their gender identity — a restriction critics have said would be the most extreme in the country.

"The Governor has said she will sign laws that focus on protecting and educating our kids, not indoctrinating them and believes our schools are no place for the radical left's woke agenda," said Alexa Henning, Sanders' spokesperson, in a statement. "Arkansas isn't going to rewrite the rules of biology just to please a handful of far-left advocates."

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Resurgence of bathroom bans

Arkansas joins a surge of conservative states to pass or advance anti-LGBTQ laws.More than 420 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in statehouses across the nation in 2023, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

"Approximately 180 of those bills would specifically restrict the rights of transgender people, the highest number of bills targeting transgender people in a single year to date," the Human Rights Campaign said.

The advocacy group said more bathroom bans bills have been filed in 2023 than in any previous year. More than two dozen bathroom bills have been filed in 17 states, according to the group.

Similar laws have been enacted in Alabama, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, though lawsuits are challenging the Oklahoma and Tennessee restrictions. Bills in Idaho and Iowa are pending signatures from their governors. 

The resurgence of bathroom bans comes six years after North Carolina repealed its bathroom law, which faced widespread boycotts and protests.

The new Arkansas law won't go into effect until 90 days after the state Legislature adjourns this year's session, which isn't expected to happen until next month at the earliest.

Schools will be required to provide reasonable accommodations for transgender people, such as single-person restrooms, according to the measure.  Superintendents, principals, and teachers who violate the law could face fines of at least $1,000 from a state panel, and parents could also file private lawsuits to enforce the measure.

Arkansas' restriction of LGBTQ rights

The bathroom ban is the latest transgender rights restriction to be advanced in Arkansas.

Last week, Sanders approved legislation making it easier to sue providers of gender-affirming care to minors. Earlier this month, the Republican governor also signed an education bill that prohibits classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation before 5th grade. The restriction is similar to a Florida measure that critics have called the "Don't Say Gay" law.

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Opponents of the legislation have said the restriction singles out transgender people and disrupt school environments. Critics have also said the legislation doesn't provide funding for schools that may need to build single-person restrooms to provide reasonable accommodations.

Clayton Crockett, the father of a transgender child, told lawmakers earlier this year how a similar policy at his daughter's school made her feel further marginalized.

"She feels targeted, she feels discriminated against, she feels bullied, she feels singled out," Crockett said at a state House panel hearing on the bill in January.

Contributing: The Associated Press