Restroom Bill

SENATE BILL 2387

                                                                                                                 By Bell

HOUSE BILL 2414

By Lynn

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49,

relative to student restrooms and locker rooms.

            WHEREAS, courts have recognized a constitutional right to privacy that includes a right not to be compelled by the Government to undress or be unclothed in the presence of members of the opposite sex.  See, e.g. Cumby v. Meachum, 684 F.2d 712 (10th Cir. 1982); Lee v. Downs, 641 F.2d 1117 (4th Cir. 1981); York v. Story, 324 F.2d 450 (9th Cir. 1963); and

            WHEREAS, the regulations implementing Title IX specifically allow schools to “provide separate toilet, locker room, and shower facilities on the basis of sex.”  34 C.F.R. § 106.33.

            WHEREAS, in 2015 a federal court held that a “University’s policy of requiring students to use sex-segregated bathroom and locker room facilities based on students’ natal or birth sex, rather than gender identity, does not violate Title IX’s prohibition of sex discrimination.” Johnston v. Univ. of Pittsburgh of Com. Sys. Of Higher Educ., 2015 WL 1497753, at 1 (W.D. Pa. Mar. 31, 2015).

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:

            SECTION 1.  Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, Chapter 2, Part 1, is amended by adding the following language as a new section:

               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.

SECTION 2.  Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, Chapter 7, Part 1, is amended by

adding the following language as a new section:

                        Public institutions of higher education shall require that a student use the 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.

SECTION 3.  This act shall take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.