Indiana bill would ban trans students from using facilities of their choice

A Republican lawmaker in Indiana has introduced a bill that would force trans students to use facilities matching their chromosomes and sex at birth.

Representative Bruce Borders authored House Bill 1525, which seeks to define students’ access to sports activities and facilities such as locker rooms and bathrooms on the basis of their “biological sexual identity.”

He submitted the proposed legislation on January 17.

The language used in the bill is similar to the one featured in the Department of Health and Human Services memo leaked in October, which defined sex as “immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth” and “genetic evidence.”

Bruce Borders’ House Bill 1525 would ban trans students from using facilities matching their gender identity.

Borders’ bill described “biological sexual identity” as “the physical condition of being male or female, as determined by an individual’s chromosomes and identified at birth by the individual’s anatomy.”

An Indiana trans woman expressed her concern about the effect of Borders’ bill on trans students and their wellbeing in a letter to her local paper.

She wrote: “In addition to the hardships this will bring to transgender children in Indiana schools, this bill would open the door to further discriminatory legislation via legal precedent, including a potential statewide bathroom bill.”

Indiana’s House Bill 1525 isn’t the only one targeting trans students

Borders’ bill one of at least three similar legislations proposed across the US in the past few weeks.

In Utah, a Republican lawmaker filed a bill on January 22 that would stop transgender people from changing their birth certificates, defining sex as “the innate and immutable characteristics established at conception.”

In South Dakota, a bill that was ultimately rejected by lawmakers in a bilateral vote on Thursday (January 24) would have forced trans students to play for the sports team matching the gender on their birth certificate.