Single-Sex Bathroom Bill Floated in Florida House

When you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go.

But, doing so in a public restroom designated for the opposite sex could end up costing Floridians a trip to jail if a bill being floated in the State House doesn’t flush out this legislative session.

Frank Artiles, R-Miami, filed the bill earlier this month asking fellow representatives to get behind his idea to ban the use of gender-designated public restrooms by members of the opposite sex. If approved, the bill would make it illegal for a lady waiting in a long line, for example, to sneak into a men’s room for more immediate relief.

“The purpose of this act is to secure privacy and safety for all individuals using single-sex public facilities,” Artiles explained in the bill’s text. “Single-sex public facilities are places of increased vulnerability and present the potential for crimes against individuals using those facilities, including, but not limited to, assault, battery, molestation, rape, voyeurism, and exhibitionism.”

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The bill would make it a first-degree misdemeanor for a biological male to use a ladies’ room or a biological female to enter a men’s room. The crime’s maximum penalty would be up to a year in jail, according to NBC.

Exceptions do exist.

Unisex restrooms are exempt under the proposed law as are family bathrooms. The law also wouldn’t apply to bathrooms that are meant for use by only one person at a time.

The law would apply to locker rooms, public shower facilities and dressing rooms.

Essentially, a person must use the restroom they were born to use, NBC pointed out. That means a man who underwent a sex change to become a woman would be required to use a women’s room.

Artiles, however, insists the bill isn’t meant to target the LGBT community.

“It’s about targeting public safety,” he told NBC.

Whether Artiles’ bill will hold water remains to be seen. It has yet to be scheduled for a committee hearing. Should it float, however, the new rules would go into effect on July 1.

Check out the bill’s full text here.

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