Wyoming Senate Passes Bill On Gender Restroom Usage In Schools

The Wyoming Senate has approved a bill that mandates students in publicly funded schools use restrooms that correspond with their sex at birth.

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You can read Senate File 62 here. It's sponsored by Sen. Dan Laursen [R-Park, Bighorn counties].

Rothfuss: Leave It To Local Control

In floor debate on the bill, Sen. Chris Rothfuss [D-Albany County] argued that the issue is already being tried in the courts "so we know that lawsuits are coming." He went on to say that every school district in the state "has a policy, or has dealt with this effectively.'' Rothfuss argued that local districts wat to deal with the issue on their own. "They've got this" he said. ''This tends to be a one-off situation with one individual or a small number of individuals who deserve specific accommodation or conversation and the schnool deserves the opportunity  able to work out a solution that works for that building."

Rothfuss called it a great issue for local control.

Nethercott: Don't Talk To Me About local Control On This

But Sen. Tara Nethercott [R-Laramie County] said "Don't talk to me about local control when its fun topics to discuss, and you want to discuss and it's the difficult social issues you want to defer to the state legislature for cover."

She went on to say " I didn't see communications from your school districts or school boards saying anything. It's all secret. It's all quiet. Why? Because it's hard. It'd really hard So its time for a little ownership and personal responsibility from these school districts on what it is that they really want."

She added "so yeah, the state government is going to start taking over some of these local decisions."

The Bill now moves on the Wyoming House of Representatives

The vote in favor of the bill on third and final reading was 27-3. Here is how the senators voted:

Ayes: Anderson, Barlow, Boner, Brennan, Cooper, Crago, Crum, Dockstader, Driskill, French, Hicks, Hutchings, Ide, Jones, Kolb, Landen, Laursen, McKeown, Nethercott, Olsen, Pappas, Pearson, Salazar, Schuler, Scott, Steinmetz, Biteman
Nays: Case, Gierau, Rothfuss
Excused: Smith

You can hear the floor debate in the attached audio file: