A Texas lawmaker has filed a bill that would prohibit schools from allowing transgender students to use restrooms in accordance with their gender identity.
HB 2801, from GOP state Rep. Gilbert Pena (above), is similar to a bill that passed the Kentucky Senate last week.
Under Pena's proposal, school districts would be required to adopt policies saying "only persons of the same biological sex may be present at the same time in any bathroom, locker room, or shower facility in a building owned by the district."
Schools could provide "reasonable alternate" facilities if students assert they are transgender and parents sign off on it. But districts could be held liable for $2,000 in exemplary damages — plus actual damages, court costs and attorneys fees — if employees knowingly allow transgender students to use restrooms in accordance with their gender identity. In other words, the bill would place a bounty on the heads of transgender students, offering rewards to peers who report them for going to the bathroom.
Pena's bill is the third anti-transgender bathroom bill introduced in Texas this year. Two other proposals would make it a crime for transgender people to use restrooms or similar facilities in accordance with their gender identity. Last week, the Texas Department of Public Safety sent a warning to lawmakers after the author of those bills, GOP Rep. Debbie Riddle, allegedly received a glitter bomb in the mail.
The transgender bathroom bills are among at least 11 anti-LGBT measures that have been introduced in the current Texas Legislature.
That's right, folks, everything's bigger in Texas — including backlash against same-sex marriage.
Read the full text of Pena's bill, AFTER THE JUMP …
