Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday signed a bill restricting female bathroom usage to biological females.
The legislation makes Arkansas the fourth state to ban biological males from women’s bathrooms in government schools, after Alabama, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Bathroom bills in Idaho and Iowa are headed to their respective Republican governors for approval.
House Bill 1156 restricts public school bathrooms, restrooms, changing rooms, and shower rooms to use by members of the same biological sex.
A second bill, Senate Bill 270 amends the Arkansas Code to clarify the definition of “sex” as “a person’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth.” The bill has passed the Arkansas Senate.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has signed a new law prohibiting transgender people at public schools from using the restroom of their choice. https://t.co/UZX7haIrGo
— KSAT 12 (@ksatnews) March 22, 2023
The bill says an adult of 18 years or older is guilty of “sexual indecency with a child” if they knowingly use a public changing facility assigned to individuals of the opposite sex. The definition of “public changing facility” includes restrooms, bathrooms, locker rooms and shower rooms, according to the legislation. (RELATED: Historian Calls Pedophilia ‘Intergenerational Sex,’ Refuses To Describe Rape Of 10-Year-Old Boy As ‘Abuse’)
“The Governor has said she will sign laws that focus on protecting and educating our kids, not indoctrinating them and believes our schools are no place for the radical left’s woke agenda,” Sanders’ spokeswoman, Alexa Henning, said in a statement. “Arkansas isn’t going to rewrite the rules of biology just to please a handful of far-left advocates.”