Rep. Mary Bentley (R-Perryville) is a one-hit wonder with her fixation on transgender children that spans the years and the legislative sessions, but her fellow Arkansas lawmakers seem happy to stay stuck in the time warp with her. On Wednesday, Bentley sold her shoddy bathroom bill to the Senate Education Committee, moving it another step closer to becoming law and getting the state sued again for violating transgender children’s civil and constitutional rights.
Bentley’s bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Jonesboro) was hateful and mean and dangerous to trans kids when it passed through the House Education Committee in January. It was still hateful and mean and dangerous to trans kids when senators voted it up today, despite conservatives’ assurances to the contrary.
“For me, this has nothing to do with targeting transgender children, and I’m actually quite offended to be put in that narrative,” said Sen. Breanne Davis (R-Russellville), who has three children in public schools. She said schoolchildren are changing their gender identities and preferred pronouns multiple times throughout the school year, and she was worried about the idea of her middle schooler being in a locker room with someone of a different sex at birth. Davis said she cares about those children and doesn’t want them to be hurt, and she believes carving out separate accommodations for trans students is a good plan.
Opponents who testified Wednesday noted that trans children likely will be hurt, though, and that medical experts warn against bathroom bills like this one that single out transgender students. The bill also prevents transgender youth from using the locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity, or rooming with people of their same gender on overnight school trips.
Olivia Gardner, the education director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, said transgender children are at higher risk of harassment and abuse. This bill ostracizes them further. “This bill was written under the premise that it will ensure student safety. Instead, we’ll put some of our most vulnerable students in harm’s way.”
Moms for Liberty member and Conduit News personality Ginny Lauren Dowden said she supported the bathroom bill because of common sense, not politics. “CRT and gender identity ideology are already the tools of entry into our educational institutions with the goal of fundamentally transforming schools’ environments and culture,” she said. “Do we as a society adhere to the age-old biological fact that men are men and women are women, or not?” See? Not political.
The conservative Family Council also testified in support of the bathroom bill.
Allison Guthrie, a psychology student, read from the American Medical Association’s policy that clashes with bathroom bills like this one. The AMA has knowledge, research and expertise on this subject, which legislators continue to ignore, Guthrie said.
“It seems to me that this government rather than protecting children intends to be the gender and genital police of them,” she said.
Sarah Everett, the policy director for Arkansas’s American Civil Liberties Union, said that in addition to concerns she has about the violation of constitutional rights, it will put everyone in strange and potentially unsafe situations.
“This bill would require trans girls to spend the night with boys and trans boys to spend the night with girls on overnight trips,” she said.
The question about how these rules will be enforced continued to go unanswered. While penalties for violations are outlined in the bill, enforcement mechanisms are not. Without some clarity there, “I’m concerned about what situations we’re going to be putting children and their families into,” Sen. Greg Leding (D-Fayetteville) said.
Leding and Sen. Linda Chesterfield (D-Little Rock) voted no, but the bill passed on a voice vote and now goes to the full Senate.