Background: By designating restrooms, showers, sleeping quarters, and locker rooms at public facilities as single sex, defining sex as that which was assigned at birth, House Bill 72 would prohibit transgender people from using the spaces that match their gender identity.
Our position: The ACLU of Wyoming opposes House Bill 72.
Transgender people, whether people know it or not, are already using the restrooms and communal facilities they have a right to – and doing so without incident. It doesn’t infringe on anyone rights to share spaces with those who are different.
House Bill 72 isn’t motivated by privacy concerns. It’s motivated by ignorance, misinformation and fear. It doesn’t infringe on anyone’s rights to share spaces with those who are different. Like previous efforts to expel people of color, people with disabilities, and others from communal spaces, these arguments for privacy just mask a fear of difference. Eroding the fundamental rights of transgender people is dangerous for every one of us. When the government has the power to deny legal rights to one group, all Americans’ rights are severely threatened.
