A bill moving through the Tennessee state legislature would require schools to segregate some facilities based on biological sex.
HB 64/SB 472 was first introduced in the Tennessee legislature in January. If passed, the bill would require residential education programs – including public and private schools and postsecondary institutions, according to the bill’s fiscal note – to separate restrooms, changing areas, and showers by sex assigned at birth.
According to a briefing from the Tennessee Equality Project, a non-profit LGBTQ+ advocacy group, the proposed legislation does not include any allowance for single-use restrooms.
Bryan Davidson is an attorney and policy director with the ACLU of Tennessee. He said this bill is part of the newest wave of discriminatory measures introduced in the state legislature, many of which specifically target the LGBTQ+ community.
“I think that [what] we are seeing in this state is the effort to systematically remove LGBTQ representation from all facets of public life,” Davidson said.
This is not the first piece of legislation to push such restrictions on transgender youth in Tennessee schools. The Tennessee Accommodations for All Children Act, signed into law in July 2021, bars transgender students from using the bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity. However, that law does allow for “reasonable accommodations” at schools such as single-use bathrooms and facilities or use of employee restrooms or changing facilities.
A lawsuit challenging the state law was dismissed by a federal judge in September 2024.
The ACLU of Tennessee said it is currently tracking 17 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in the Volunteer State. These bills cover a range of topics, including school facilities bans, healthcare restrictions and one measure that would effectively ban public schools, as well as state and local governments, from displaying pride flags.
Davidson said one of the bill’s sponsors, Republican Representative Gino Bulso of Brentwood, has sponsored more anti-LGBTQ+ legislation than any other representative in state history.
The bill is scheduled to be heard by the Tennessee House Education Committee in early March.
