Article Preview Image Credit: TN General Assembly / In-article photos by Adelia Kirchner
The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
A bill requiring that all residential educational programs in Tennessee segregate their restrooms, changing areas, and showers according to “immutable biological sex” if the program allows minors to participate or to access residential facilities passed in the House Education Administration Subcommittee on Tuesday afternoon.
The audience for this subcommittee meeting was largely made up of transgender activists and supporters in opposition of the legislation, holding signs that read things like “Flush HB64,” “This will harm kids,” and “Get a grip Bulso.”
Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood-District 61) filed House Bill 64 (HB0064) in response to a concern brought forward by his constituents.
As Rep. Bulso previously told Tennessee Conservative News, a mother and father enrolled their student in a month-long summer program offered by a private university in Nashville.
The students were to reside in the university’s on-campus housing and the parents were asked if their daughter could be assigned a transgender roommate.
The parents said no and their daughter was assigned a female roommate for the duration of the program.
“What they did not know and what was not disclosed to them,” Rep. Bulso explained in subcommittee, “was that the school was going to allow boys who ‘identified’ as girls to share the same showering and restroom facilities on the floor of the dormitories where the students would be housed.”
“The purpose of this bill,” he continued, “is just to see to it that this does not continue to happen in the state of Tennessee. We want to protect girls, protect young ladies and their privacy and security in spaces like restrooms and shower facilities.”
HB0064 was amended in subcommittee to specify that it is any restrooms, changing rooms, etc. that are “multi-occupant” which must be segregated by sex.
Rep. Bulso noted that it was at the suggestion of the Attorney General’s office that the term “multi-occupancy” was added, to clarify that the bill does not impact single-occupancy spaces.
The subcommittee then heard public testimony from Tennessee Equality Project Policy Analyst and Chair for Knox, Anderson, and Blount Counties, Bean Chapman.
Chapman urged committee members to vote against HB0064, saying that the legislation “endangers transgender, nonbinary, and intersex students, and adults that education them in residential private schools, all colleges and universities, specials schools, programs, and camps.”
“It paints a broad stroke of government control into private spaces and will lead to harassment and violence,” said Chapman. “This will also embolden an already vigilante-style enforcement mechanism that’s in place.”
During subcommittee questioning, Rep. Scott Cepicky (R- Culleoka-District 64) expressed concern about HB0064 covering a “broad spectrum in the private sector.”
Rep. Cepicky said a problem they were running up against with the bill was that “residential education program” is not already defined within Tennessee state law and HB0064 does not define the term either.
“The way you have it written right now, it’s extremely broad and encompassing to where not only you would have private colleges or universities, you could have daycares, mental health facilities, juvenile detention centers,” said Rep. Cepicky. “Some of those are funded with public dollars and some of those aren’t. The ones that are funded with public dollars could potentially draw down grant money from the state to help to meet your spirit of the bill, if they have to create a unisex bathroom to allow for that accommodation. The private sector would not.”
In response, Rep. Bulso referred to Former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s “Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts” in which Justic Scalia makes the point that, it is the obligation of the court system to give a “fair” reading to any legislation.
“What judges do, is they take an aptitude with language, they combine that with ordinary prudence and they put aside and they suppress any type of personal preference as to the outcome, and they interpret text in accordance with its plain language,” said Rep. Bulso.
“Thinking about whether the term should be defined, after looking at this in some detail, I’ve decided no, actually the term ‘residential educational program’ is sufficiently defined in terms of plain and ordinary meaning that reasonable users of the statute, reasonable judges interpreting the statute, will know what it means,” he continued.
Rep. Cepicky also expressed concern that HB0064 would be putting an unfunded mandate into place.
“Your question presumes that there’s going to be some cost of compliance to anyone if this is passed,” said Rep. Bulso. “The bill does not require any type of construction or modification. It simply requires that anyone who presents a residential education program that involves minors, must respect the privacy and security of girls and young ladies so that the bathrooms are continuing to be segregated by sex.”
It was further clarified in subcommittee that if, for example, a college or university offers a summer program to minors, that the college or university would only be required to segregate the facilities which would be accessed by those minor students.
HB0064 passed in the Education Administration Subcommittee by a 5-1 vote.
Republican Representatives Scott Cepicky, Chris Hurt, Jay Reedy, William Slater, and Mark White all voted to pass the bill on for consideration by the House Full Education Committee.
Democrat Rep. Ronnie Glynn was the only no vote.
As Rep. Bulso exited the committee hearing room, activists called him a murderer and a pedophile amongst other things.
About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. Adelia is The Tennessee Conservative’s on-site reporter for the Tennessee General Assembly. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
One Response
Sad he suffered leftist abuse.