Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) signed a bill Monday that will ban transgender people from using bathrooms that match their gender identities in the state’s public schools.
The billTitled the Protecting Areas for Women Effectively and Responsibly Act, or “SAFER,” it requires all public educational institutions to have single-sex restrooms, locker rooms, and dormitories.
The legislation defines a person’s sex as “‘determined solely by birth,’ without regard to the fluidity of how someone acts or feels.”
This means that individuals will only be able to enter spaces that correspond to the sex assigned at birth, regardless of their appearance or any gender-affirming procedures. Those who don’t follow this rule could face legal action, although schools, colleges and universities are protected from any liability, the Associated Press reported.
In a statement for X, Reeves said the project seeks to “protect women’s spaces.”
“It’s mind-blowing that Joe Biden’s America has come to this. Having to pass commonsense policies that protect women’s spaces was unimaginable just a few years ago. But here we are… we have to pass a law to protect women in our bathrooms, sororities, locker rooms, locker rooms, showers, and more,” he wrote.
“There is no doubt that the left will continue to present more eccentric ideas that harm biological women. And there is no doubt that Mississippi will continue to reject them,” Reeves added.
The bill was introduced earlier this month as part of a last-ditch effort by Mississippi Republicans, who passed the legislation in the House and Senate on the final day of the session after negotiations prevented an earlier proposal from moving forward, the AP reported . State Republicans said they received a series of messages asking them to revive the project.
“This is probably, for many of our constituents and for many people in this House, probably the most important bill that we have introduced,” Republican Senate President Pro Tempore Dean Kirby said earlier this month, according to the outlet of news.
Last year, Reeves signed into law a bill that prohibits medical professionals from providing gender-affirming care to transgender minors. During the signing ceremony in February, Reeves noted that there is a “dangerous movement spreading across America.”
It is advancing under the guise of a false ideology and pseudoscience is being pushed on our children through radical activists, social media and online influencers,” he continued, in reference to “rapid-onset gender dysphoria,” atheory debunkedwhich states that young people identify as transgender due to “social contagion”.
The SAFER Act is the latest in a series of bills introduced by conservative lawmakers targeting LGBTQ policies. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) estimates that 515 bills have been introduced across the country this year.
Mississippi is one of 15 Republican-led states that has sued the Biden administration over new Title IV regulations that add protections for transgender students.
Last month, the Department of Education announced sweeping changes to Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in schools and education programs that receive government funding, after more than a year of delays. The new regulations are set to come into force on August 1 and also apply to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
