Michigan House Republicans OK transgender school bathroom ban

Michigan’s Republican-led House approves ban on transgender students using school bathrooms of their identified gender
LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and Democrats derided the proposal as a cruel “distraction”
The legislation is likely to struggle to find a path forward in the Democrat-controlled Senate

Transgender students in Michigan public schools and colleges would be barred from using bathrooms that align with their identified gender under a bill approved Thursday by state House Republicans.

The proposal passed the House in a party-line vote, 58-46, with all Democrats opposed. The Democratic-led Senate is not expected to take it up.

Rep. Joseph Fox, the Fremont Republican who sponsored the bill, said the legislation aims to ensure children don’t feel “unsafe,” but he did not provide any examples of that occurring in Michigan schools.

He said he was “discouraged” by the state’s low math and reading scores and chronic absenteeism, but that bathroom use is the issue that weighs most heavily on his heart.

“There’s no desire in my heart to engender shame,” Fox said. “I want to ensure that every student in the state of Michigan is dignified and, above all, protected from harm.”

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The proposal is part of a nationwide push by conservatives to fight back against inclusive bathroom policies.

At least 20 other states have passed laws restricting transgender people from using the bathroom of their identified gender in at least some public buildings since 2020, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a Colorado-based LGBTQ+ think tank.

Substantial questions linger about how the bills would work in practice. The bills don’t dictate who would be responsible for enforcing the rules or any penalties for violating them. That has drawn some derision from Democratic critics who don’t view the legislation as a serious attempt at changing policy.

That’s in part because the legislation has little hope of advancing under the Democrat-controlled Senate, like many other party-line votes taken by both chambers in the divided legislature this year.

At the center of the divisions are tensions between the ideas of sex and gender identity, and whether transgender Michiganders should be accepted in society for their identities.

“Gender is not sex, yet those in opposition with this legislation conflate these concepts,” said Rep. Brad Paquette, a Niles Republican who has long been vocal in his opposition to transgender rights initiatives.

Democrats opposed to the legislation, like Rep. Helena Scott of Detroit, contend the legislation would violate the state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which lawmakers expanded in 2023 to ban discrimination against Michiganders on the basis of gender identity.

Scott said enforcement of the proposal would be “close to impossible” and called it “nothing more than a distraction.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who signed the expanded nondiscrimination law two years ago, said Thursday afternoon that she “will always stand with the LGBTQ+ community” without referencing the legislation.

Equality Michigan, the state’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy group, argued the House GOP proposal is “rooted in bias against trans people that goes against Michigan values of fairness and equality.”

“While they’re obsessing over bathroom policies, Michigan families need them focused on funding our schools and making the economy work,” Executive Director Erin Knott said in a statement, referencing an ongoing budget impasse and prospect of a looming government shutdown.

Private schools would not be subject to the rule. The American Civil Liberties Union previously told Bridge Michigan the state should expect a lawsuit if the legislation was enacted into law.

In a previous interview with Bridge, Fox said the Bible was his guidance for the legislation. While the Democratic-led Senate is not expected to take up the bill, Republicans are “practicing for when we take control of the Senate and the governor’s seat,” he said, referencing 2026 elections.

Speaking on the House floor Thursday, Fox called the proposal “creation-rooted” legislation.

The legislation is not the first House bill to target transgender schoolchildren this term. A bill advanced earlier this year would ban transgender girls from participating in girls’ high school sports. It too passed in a party-line vote.