SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Transgender college students in Utah will be prohibited from living in dorms consistent with their gender identity, under a bill that cleared its final legislative hurdle Monday.
The state House, which had already passed the measure, again approved it with small tweaks following a heated Senate debate in which one Republican told trans people, “If you don’t fit in, then that’s your own fault.”
It now heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Spencer Cox, who has expressed support for the restrictions. Spokesperson Robert Carroll said the governor will closely examine the bill, which passed with veto-proof margins in both chambers.
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Under the bill, students at the state’s public colleges and universities can only enter or live in a gendered space, such as a dorm building, locker room or bathroom, that corresponds with their sex assigned at birth. Transgender students can otherwise live in single rooms in coed dorm buildings.
The bill goes a step beyond existing laws in Utah and 11 other states that bar transgender girls and women from women’s bathrooms at public schools, and in some cases other government facilities. It would be the first transgender restriction explicitly aimed at university housing, though some states have broad laws that could be interpreted to apply to dorms.
Bathroom laws are in effect in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah. Ohio’s will take effect Feb. 25. A judge has placed enforcement on hold in Idaho.
Republican legislative leaders pledged to address campus housing after a mother’s viral social media post called out a Utah university for not providing prior notice that her daughter would have a trans suitemate.
Utah State University sophomore Marcie Robertson, a transgender woman, was assigned to be the resident assistant for a women’s dorm and share a suite with freshman Avery Saltzman. After learning of Robertson’s identity, Saltzman requested and received a room transfer, then her mom posted about it online.
Robertson told lawmakers during a recent committee hearing that life has been “excruciating” since the online attention led to harassment and death threats. But she said it has been most painful to see legislation target her specifically.
Saltzman testified that current policies allowing a trans woman to be placed in her dorm made her feel uncomfortable. Female students, she said, have to decide whether to “put ourselves at risk” or face social stigma for refusing to live with a trans person.
The bill’s Republican sponsor, Rep. Stephanie Gricius of Eagle Mountain, said it’s needed to support the privacy needs of female students.
Rep. Sahara Hayes, a Millcreek Democrat and Utah’s only out LGBTQ+ lawmaker, said no one’s privacy has been violated more than Robertson’s.
This is the fourth straight year, she said, that the Republican supermajority has pushed legislation aimed at Utah’s tiny transgender population.
In 2022, Utah banned transgender girls from playing girls school sports. A judge has temporarily blocked enforcement of the ban and scheduled a trial for this spring. In 2023, the state banned gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. And last year, Cox signed the bathroom ban into law.
“The LGBTQ community is so tired,” Hayes said through tears on the House floor. “We are so tired of being scared every year when this body meets because we don’t know how we’re going to be targeted. It’s starting to feel inevitable.”
In the Senate, Sen. David Hinkins shared how he was once booted from housing approved by Brigham Young University, the Utah private school run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for smoking and drinking alcohol in violation of the rules. The Republican from Ferron then found other housing, which he said is the appropriate action for someone who can’t follow rules or social expectations.
In a remark clearly aimed at the trans people affected by the bill, he said only they are to blame if they don’t fit in.
Sen. Daniel Thatcher of West Valley City was the only Republican from either chamber to oppose the bill. He criticized his colleagues for repeatedly passing legislation that he said harms a small group of vulnerable people. This bill, he said, is just an invitation for another lawsuit.
