Mississippi passes bill prohibiting transgender individuals from using restrooms

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a new law about where transgender people can use the bathroom, locker rooms, and dorms in public schools. This makes Mississippi the 12th state to restrict transgender students from using facilities that match their gender identity.

Reeves didn’t like a rule that stops transgender students from using the school bathroom that matches their gender. Republican lawyers from Mississippi and a few other states are questioning the federal rules.

“It’s amazing to see that this is what America has become under Joe Biden,” Reeves wrote on social media. A few years ago, it was hard to believe that we would have to make rules to protect women’s spaces. But now we are here. We need to make a rule to keep women safe in places like bathrooms, sororities, locker rooms, dressing rooms, shower rooms, and other places.

The law says that all public schools in the state need to have bathrooms and living areas for boys and girls. They also need to have a bathroom and living area that anyone can use, no matter their gender.

The new law says that people can only use spaces that match the sex they were born as, even if they look different or have had surgeries to change their gender. Anyone who breaks the rules might get sued, but schools, colleges and universities will not be held responsible.

It says that people are male or female based on their biological characteristics at birth, regardless of how they feel or identify.

Democrats said that the new rules for bathrooms and other places could be dangerous for transgender people during a discussion in the government. They also said that Republicans should not have focused on this issue because there were other things they needed to finish first.

In 2021, Reeves passed a law to stop transgender athletes from playing on girls’ or women’s sports teams. Last year, he made a law to stop young people under 18 from getting hormone treatment or surgery to change their gender.

Lawmakers in Mississippi are thinking about some new rules in the government. They are part of a bigger effort by Republicans to make it harder for transgender people to get the medical care and use the facilities they need.