Bathroom Bill

A bathroom bill is the common name for a law that defines access to public toilets, locker rooms, and similar facilities by a person's sex, usually as listed on their birth certificate, rather than by their gender identity. In practice these laws prevent many transgender people from using facilities that match how they live. North Carolina passed the first such statewide law in 2016, House Bill 2, which drew national boycotts and cost the state an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars before its bathroom provision was repealed. Supporters framed the bills around privacy and safety, but researchers and officials have found no evidence that letting trans people use facilities matching their gender identity increases assaults. Similar bills have re-emerged in several states.