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- Utah House passed a bill Tuesday limiting transgender students' dorm access at public universities.
- Republicans argue the bill protects privacy, while Democrats view it as targeting transgender individuals.
- The bill, HB269, advances to the Senate for further consideration.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah representatives advanced a bill restricting transgender students' access to dormitories at public universities on a 59-13 party-line vote Tuesday, after the mother of a Utah State University student complained about a transgender resident adviser.
It's the latest example of the state's Republican-controlled Legislature addressing transgender rights, following high-profile bills approved in each of the last three sessions. Republicans said the bill is an effort to ensure the privacy of female students, while Democrats argued transgender dorm access should be left to universities to handle and accused the majority of targeting the transgender community.
"I want to be very, very clear: This is a sensitive and emotional issue, but no person deserves harassment — trans or otherwise," bill sponsor Rep. Stephanie Gricius, R-Eagle Mountain, told colleagues on the House floor Tuesday.
HB269 — which advanced out of a House committee last week — requires that students at public universities live in rooms that match their sex designation at birth, even if they have changed the sex listed on their birth certificate. Gricius described three "pathways" to campus housing for students: housing for biological males, biological females or gender-neutral housing — which she said creates a pathway for transgender students on campus.
The bill also requires the Utah Board of Higher Education to provide universities with instructions for complying with the bill.
The issue burst into the public arena earlier this month after a post by conservative activist Eric Moutsos, who amplified the complaints of a Utah woman who said her daughter had a transgender resident assistant assigned to her all-girls dorm at USU.
Tuesday's House debate was emotional at times. Rep. Sahara Hayes, D-Salt Lake City, who is openly gay, tearfully pleaded with her colleagues not to support the bill. She criticized the Legislature's focus on bills impacting the transgender community over the last few years, and she noted the USU resident adviser was doxxed and harassed online.
"The LGBT community is so tired. We are so tired of being scared every year when this body meets because we don't know how we're going to be targeted," Hayes said. "We don't know how our loved ones and our families are going to be targeted, but it's starting to feel inevitable that it will happen."
Hayes added she wants all students to feel safe, but "it has to be with respect for individual beliefs and values and identities."
Another Democrat, Rep. Grant Miller, D-Salt Lake City, said the Legislature "is an inappropriate forum to ultimately marshal what is a dispute between roommates." He added that USU already has a reasonable housing policy.
"The (resident adviser) here caused no damage. She caused no injury. She caused no crime. She caused no harm by any quantifiable measure," Miller said. "What concerns me is she simply existed as a trans woman in a woman's dorm. That's it."
Multiple Republicans spoke in support of the bill, saying it strikes a balance between privacy rights and ensuring respect for the transgender community.
"As a father of three young girls, I understand what it means to protect what is most precious to us – our children," said Rep. Doug Fiefia, R-Herriman. "We should always lead with understanding and compassion, but this bill is not about discrimination. It's about clarity and drawing clear lines to protect our most vulnerable."
Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton, said HB269 establishes a good precedent for the future.
"Bills like this that we run and that we have come before us are not to discriminate against one individual or groups of marginalized people," Lee said, "but it's to protect the daughters and those who want their own privacy, as well."
HB269 now moves to the Senate for consideration. GOP leaders did not say much when asked about it Tuesday during media availability.
"We'll definitely take a look at it," said Senate Majority Whip Chris Wilson, R-Logan, whose district includes Utah State University.
"There's a privacy issue that probably needs to be managed," added Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton.
