Gov. Huckabee Sanders signs law banning transgender restrooms in public schools

by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News March 22, 2023

Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday signed legislation that bans transgenders in public schools from using the restroom based on their gender identity.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders

The Arkansas law, which takes effect this summer, applies to multi-person restrooms and locker rooms at public schools and charter schools serving pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

The new law requires public schools to provide reasonable accommodations, including single-person restrooms. Superintendents, principals and teachers who violate the prohibition could face fines of at least $1,000 from a state panel, and parents could also file private lawsuits to enforce the law.

Alexa Henning, the spokesperson for Sanders, said in a statement that the law will protect children: “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. Arkansas isn’t going to rewrite the rules of biology just to please a handful of far-left advocates.”

Republican state Rep. Mary Bentley, the bill’s sponsor, told lawmakers earlier this year: “Each child in our schools has a right to privacy and to feel safe and to feel comfortable in the bathroom they need to go to.”

Holly Dickson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, said the new law represents a “flagrant message” that Republicans “refuse to respect (transgender people’s) rights and humanity, to respect Arkansans’ rights and humanity.”

The Associated Press, which long ago abandoned objective journalism for leftist advocacy, griped that the legislation signed by Huckabee Sanders “might be followed by an even stricter Arkansas bill criminalizing transgender adults using public restrooms that match their gender identity.”

The bill signed by Huckabee Sanders makes Arkansas the fourth state to place such restrictions at public schools, and it comes as bills in Idaho and Iowa also await their governor’s signature.


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