Bill to restrict transgender students in Utah college dorms heads to Gov. Cox
The Utah Legislature has given final legislative approval to a bill that restricts where transgender college students can and can't live in public universities.
The House on Monday gave a final nod to HB289 with a 59-14 vote after the Senate last week passed it 22-7. The bill now goes to Gov. Spencer Cox's desk.
Cox did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. But the Republican governor told Utah News Dispatch last month that he was aware of HB289 and supportive of the effort, which he called a 'tweak' to a bill lawmakers passed last year restricting transgender access in sex-designated bathrooms and locker rooms in publicly-owned and controlled buildings.
'We've had parents that are concerned and we've been very focused last year on making sure we have safe spaces for women. That's really important,' Cox told the Dispatch at the time. 'We want to make sure that continues.'
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Gricius, R-Eagle Mountain, would require transgender students at public universities to live in dorms corresponding with their sex at birth.
Utah poised to pass transgender rule on dorms, marking 4th year of LGBTQ+ restrictions
Supporters argue it's meant to create privacy protections, especially for female students. Opponents decry it as legislation that targets the transgender community, creates potential for litigation, and is part of four years of action from the Utah Legislature aimed at 'erasing' transgender people from public spaces.
Utah's Republican legislative leadership prioritized the bill in the first weeks of the 2025 legislative session that began Jan. 21 after a viral social media post in which a mother of a Utah State University student complained to the school that her daughter was sharing a common area with a transgender resident assistant.
Both the student and her mother — Cheryl Saltzman and Avery Saltzman — and Marcie Robertson, the resident assistant who identifies as transgender, testified to lawmakers during the bill's public hearing.
Robertson told lawmakers her life has been 'excruciating' as she's struggled to balance her school work while being attacked and demonized relentlessly since being swept up in the furor over the issue.
'(The) cherry on top of this fiasco is the proposed legislation that would see myself and all other trans students removed from our apartments and barred from rooming with others who share our gender identities,' she said.
As transgender restriction bills pile up, LGBTQ+ supporters stage cheerful protest
Avery Saltzman said it was 'disappointing and frightening' that the university hired 'someone of the opposite sex to live in my girls-designated apartment without letting me or any of my roommates know about it.'
'The clear and obvious boundaries of female space should never have been crossed, and I'm very sorry to those people who believe that their housing is being restricted or that they are being targeted or bullied,' her mother, Cheryl Saltzman said. 'This is not my intention. It is only to restore a boundary that should never have been crossed.'
The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah opposes the bill, characterizing it on its website as a bill that 'further restricts the rights of transgender people in Utah.'
'Colleges and universities already have processes through which housing assignments can be changed at a student's request,' the ACLU of Utah says. 'This bill is a redundant piece of legislation that only further marginalizes trans-Utahns.'
The bill now goes to Cox's desk. He can either sign it, veto it or let it become law without his signature. Given his past comments of support, a veto isn't expected.
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