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Florida college faculty could face termination if they use a bathroom contrary to their biological sex, according to a new rule unanimously approved by the state's Board of Education (BOE) Wednesday.
Under the rule, colleges are required to rework their student and employee handbooks to accommodate HB 1521 – which, in its language, "provides requirements for exclusive use of restrooms & changing facilities by gender" and "prohibits willfully entering restroom or changing facility designated for opposite sex & refusing to depart when asked to do so."
The measure, signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May and now enforceable in colleges across the Sunshine State, means students and staff must adhere to the policies requiring bathroom use that corresponds to biological sex.
FLORIDA SCHOOL DISTRICT TO REQUIRE STUDENTS TO USE RESTROOMS BASED ON BIOLOGICAL SEX: REPORTS
Public washroom or bathroom sign hanging from the ceiling. (Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images)
College presidents must complete a Florida BOE form affirming that the institution's restrooms and changing facilities are sex-segregated or unisex beginning in April 2024.
CBS 4 in Miami reported that entering a restroom that does not directly correspond with a person's biological sex is allowed only in special circumstances, but if employees commit the offense outside authorized parameters twice, they risk being fired.
According to the Tallahassee Democrat, the policy extends beyond instructional facilities to include student housing operated by public colleges.
The outlet quoted board member Grazie P. Christie as arguing that single-sex spaces shouldn't be eliminated in light of "very new ideologies."
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks after signing three education bills on the campus of New College of Florida in Sarasota, Fla. on Monday, May 15, 2023. (Thomas Simonetti for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
"Bathroom spaces are very intimate and private," she said. "There is historically and cross culturally accurate reasons why males and females use different spaces in those intimate moments, not just for girls and women, but also for boys and men. This is not something that as a culture we should ditch because of very, very new ideologies that are challenging the science of male and female, which doesn't change because biology doesn't change."
The penalties and requirements, on the flipside, have LGBTQ+ allies and community members upset. They argue the policies fail to protect trans people and invade their privacy.
One parent blasted the rule as an "attack on the basic dignity of transgender students, faculty and staff."
Former state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, a senior policy adviser for Equality Florida, said, "These threats of bathroom investigations, forced firing of personnel, and restrictions on dormitories in the Florida College System will only worsen the current culture of fear and intimidation against the transgender community," according to Politico.
The rule is only the latest measure sparking debate about LGBTQ+ issues in Florida education.
Last year, for example, DeSantis signed the state's controversial Parental Rights in Education – coined by critics as the "Don't Say Gay" bill – into law, which fueled tensions between the LGBTQ+ community and GOP officials.
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