Michigan now has a so-called and controversial “bathroom bill.” State Senator Tom Casperson of Escanaba has unveiled a bill to offer accommodations to transgender students with parental consent. But the accommodation can’t include a bathroom, locker room or shower used by students “of the opposite biological sex.” Casperson says it’s in response to the Michigan State Board of Education having a proposal under consideration to allow transgender students to use the bathroom and locker room of the gender with which they identify.
Democratic Senator Coleman Young II of Detroit is outraged by Casperson’s idea and calls the bill unenforceable.
“Who’s going to enforce this?” Young asks. “Who is going to sit outside of a shower and look at peole and determine whose parts go with the shower they’re at and kick them out of that?”
Another critic is Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee of Flint, who says state lawmakers have bigger problems to deal with including the Flint water crisis and rescuing the Detroit Public Schools. Kildee called it “discriminatory and bigoted,” and added it “seeks to divide Michiganders and deny people access to restrooms when they simply want privacy, safety and respect.”
A similar law in North Carolina has prompted boycotts by musicians and has come under fire from businesses and sports leagues.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
