State legislatures in Kansas and Arkansas both approved separate legislation on Tuesday to ensure that people are only allowed to use public restrooms that correspond with their biological sex.
The Arkansas bill would expand the definition of sexual indecency with a child to make it a misdemeanor for an adult to enter a bathroom or changing room that does not correspond with their biological sex if they enter the room “for the purpose of arousing or gratifying a sexual desire” while minors are present.
It comes just two weeks after Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law a measure prohibiting transgender-identifying people at public and charter K-12 schools from using restrooms and locker rooms that do not correspond with their biological sex.
The Kansas legislation, meanwhile, is aimed at maintaining separate spaces between biological men and women in bathrooms, locker rooms, prisons, jails, rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters and other places where “biology, safety or privacy” prompt a need to separate based on sex. The legislation includes accommodations for some intersex people.
The measure also creates a legal definition of “sex” that means “biological” sex, “either male or female, at birth.”
The legislation, which supporters have called a “Women’s Bill of Rights,” also prohibits Kansans who identify as transgender from changing their name or gender on their driver’s license. It advanced in the state senate in a 28-12 vote.
While Governor Laura Kelly is expected to veto the measure, the state legislature appears to have enough votes needed to overturn any veto.
Kelly has vetoed a ban on biological men in girls’ and women’s sports for three years in a row.
“I will continue to stand up for you, protect your rights and call out and condemn any speech or behavior or veto any bill that aims to harm or discriminate against you,” she said at a rally hosted by Equality Kansas last week.