FRANKFORT, Ky. — A bill that would have banned transgender students from choosing which restroom to use at public schools has failed to pass a Kentucky state Senate committee.
The proposal was in response to a Louisville school’s decision to allow students to use the restroom of their gender identity.
The bill would have required students to use school restrooms according to their biological sex.
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But Henry Brousseau, a 16-year-old transgender student at a private school in Louisville, told lawmakers the bill was hateful because it would single him out from his peers.
The bill, sponsored by state Sen. C.B. Embry Jr. (R-Morgantown), initially would have allowed students to sue a school for $2,500 if they encountered a person of the opposite biological sex in a bathroom or locker room and a staff member had allowed it or had failed to prohibit it.
Embry presented a substitute bill to the committee that deleted that provision and struck language that would make the legislation take effect immediately upon becoming law.
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Senate Education Committee Chairman Mike Wilson (R-Bowling Green), said the committee could reconsider the bill before the end of the session.
Last fall, Atherton High School in Louisville approved a policy on transgender students’ rights, which allows transgender students to use facilities according to the gender they identify with.
