Arkansas enacts law restricting school bathroom use by transgender people

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday (March 21) signed a law targeting the trans community, prohibiting transgender people from using the restroom that matches their gender identity at public schools.

The bill signed by the Republican governor, who describes herself as a conservative reformer, applies to multi-person restrooms and locker rooms at public schools and charter schools serving prekindergarten through grade 12.

The law requires schools to provide reasonable accommodations, that include single-person restrooms and changing areas. School authorities that violate the law can face fines of at least US$1,000 (S$1,336), and parents can also file lawsuits to enforce the measure.

"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," Alexa Henning, a spokesperson for Sanders, told Reuters in a statement.

"Arkansas isn't going to rewrite the rules of biology just to please a handful of far-left advocates."

Similar laws directed at transgender youth have been enacted in Alabama and Oklahoma.

Republican legislators across the United States have escalated a campaign to ban certain healthcare for transgender youth, in some cases seeking to charge parents and doctors with child abuse if they provide treatment. 

ALSO READ: Alabama passes bill making some transgender healthcare a felony