H.B. 257 - Sex-Based Designations for Privacy, Anti-Bullying, and Women's Opportunities

Better Utah Position

– Oppose

Year

2024

Bill Status

– Passed

Summary

Prohibits students from accessing sex-specific restrooms, locker rooms, shower rooms, and changing rooms in public schools that do not correspond with a person’s biological sex as defined in the bill, instead requiring students and their parent or guardian to work with the school to develop a privacy plan that allows reasonable access to unisex, single-occupant, or faculty restrooms; for publicly owned or controlled facilities accessible to the general public, the bill makes it a crime to enter a sex-designated changing room (not restrooms) that does not correspond with that person’s “biological sex” and increases criminal penalties for other crimes committed in that situation; outside of regulating access to “privacy spaces,” the bill requires “equivalent quality or rotational sharing” of sex-designated athletic facilities or venues within the public education system, and that government entities shall ensure the construction of single-occupant facilities in new construction and consider retrofitting or remodeling existing spaces to include privacy protections.

Passed in House and Senate

Signed by Governor Cox 1/30/24

Read More on the Utah Legislature website >>