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Assembly Bill Would Allow Transgender Students To Use Facilities They Identify With

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A bill to allow transgender students use the same bathrooms and locker rooms is generating controversy as it passed the Assembly Thursday.

The issue over whether kids should be allowed to play for a team according to their gender identity comes from a bill by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco).

"In reality, this is about the safety of our trans students," said Ben Hudson with the Gender Health Center. He says transgender students must have the same opportunities all boys and girls to succeed in school.

"These students are often in fear of their own safety, and their own protection. They're concerned about being bullied in school," he said.

Brad Dacus with the Pacific Justice Institute says it's important to address the concerns of transgender students, but feels this legislation violates the rights of others.

"Whether it's in the bathroom or the locker room where you have someone of the opposite gender coming in and you're supposed to act and pretend they are the same gender when everyone can see that person is not, it's an invasion of privacy," Dacus said.

Parents at the Placer High School girl's soccer game were split on their opinions.

"I don't think it would bother me at all," said parent Anne Brown. "If they feel themselves to be a female in a male body, I don't think anything improper is going to be going on in the locker room."

"You're in the same locker room, you are asking for trouble," said parent Terry Turner. "I'd be concerned about their safety, about what thoughts are going through somebody's head in there with my child."

The bill's next stop is the Senate Education Committee. The same legislation was proposed last year, but Ammiano pulled it to do more education with school districts in the state on the issue.

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