Legislation that would impact how trans people are housed in shelters, dorms, and detention facilities passed the Tennessee Senate.
The “Riley Gaines Women’s Safety and Protection Act” was crafted to protect women from “acts of abuse committed by biological men.” The Tennessee Equality Project (TEP) called it “one of the most dangerous anti-transgender bills to come out of the Tennessee legislature and said they are “alarmed” by its passage.
The bill redefines the meaning and understanding of gender and identity by using “visible genital anatomy” to categorize individuals. Lawmakers said this is to protect women from “acts of abuse committed by biological men in spaces such as correctional facilities, juvenile detention facilities, domestic violence shelters, dormitories, and restrooms.
Under the bill, females are defined as those whose “biological reproductive system is developed to produce ova,” and males as those whose “biological reproductive system is developed to fertilize the ova of a female.”
“’Sex’ means an individual’s biological sex, either male or female, as observed or clinically verified at birth and does not include gender identity and other subjective terms, which do not apply to this bill, and must not be used as synonyms or substitutes for sex,” the bill’s summary said.
TEP said the bill is rooted in misinformation, racism, and transmisogyny and said it violated the 8th and 14th amendments of the United States Constitution, as well as Article 1 of the Tennessee Constitution.
TEP has continuously condemned the bill and cited it in a policy brief in December, saying it could undermine protections for trans inmates. They referenced the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which was passed to protect incarcerated people from sexual violence and harassment, and said Tennessee’s new bill undermines those protections.
“[The act] dismisses intersex and nonbinary persons entirely,” the brief said. “The act specifically forces prisons to restrict incarcerated trans women and girls to men’s housing, without exception for their health and safety.”
According to the advocacy group transgender people are nine times more likely to experience sexual assault or harassment in detention centers. They said transgender women of color are at a heightened risk.
“Simply put, this bill maliciously endorses the epidemic of rape, sexual assault and solitary confinement experienced by transgender and gender nonconforming adults and juveniles housed in prisons, jails, and detention centers,” TEP said.
The advocacy group called on Governor Bill Lee to veto the bill.