The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) — the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization — condemned the passage of legislation, H.B. 322, out of the Alabama Senate Government Affairs Committee, that will ban transgender students from using bathrooms and other school facilities that align with their gender identity. The legislation, which passed the committee last night, will now head to the Senate for a full chamber vote. If passed in the Senate and signed into law, the bill would further discriminate against and restrict students who already feel unsafe in school, suffer academically, and have a higher likelihood of dropping out of school. 2021 and 2020 were the deadliest and second-deadliest years on record for trans & gender non-conforming people, respectively, with the Human Rights Campaign tracking at least 50 violent deaths in 2021 alone. A new Trevor Project survey shows that a startling 85% of transgender or gender non-binary youth say their mental health has been negatively affected by these legislative attacks.

Human Rights Campaign Alabama State Director Carmarion D. Anderson-Harvey issued the following statement in reaction to today’s vote:

“Anti-LGBTQ+ elected officials across Alabama are continuing their divisive political strategy to harm kids who are simply trying to navigate their adolescence. As some legislators have noted, these bills are solutions to problems that do not exist, and are created to distract and discriminate against transgender students who deserve the fundamental human dignity of being able to use the bathroom without being targeted or humiliated. Transgender youth have a right to an education, and not being able to use the bathroom safely at school abridges that right.”

Since the reviled HB2 was passed, and subsequently partially repealed, in North Carolina, Tennessee is the only state to have passed legislation mandating anti-transgender discrimination in bathrooms. Both of these “bathroom bills'' were immediately challenged in court. HB2 was itself challenged in federal court before its partial repeal. Should Alabama pass this discriminatory legislation, it will put schools in a position of having to choose between complying with federal law, including Title IX, and complying with discriminatory state law.

While “bathroom bills'' were very popular in 2016, the international condemnation heaped upon HB2 dissuaded many other states — including Texas — from advancing their own legislation. The Associated Press projected that HB2 passed in 2016 could have cost North Carolina $3.76 billion over 10 years from the loss of business opportunities and impact the lives of countless students. Furthermore, legislation attacking transgender refuses to serve the major interests and needs of communities and families, who now pay the price as the consequence of failed leadership across the state. Transgender youth are denied their right to a public education when they’re prevented from accessing restroom facilities consistent with their gender identity, and “bathroom bills” are a violation of both Title IX and the U.S. Constitution.

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ+ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.

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