Arkansas bill restricting transgender bathroom use signed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Arkansas became the fourth state to approve a law banning transgender people from using bathrooms matching their gender identity at public schools, with the restrictions set to begin this summer.

Locker rooms and multi-person bathrooms at public and charter schools are included under the bill, which was signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

“The Governor has said she will sign laws that focus on protecting and educating our kids, not indoctrinating them and believes our schools are no place for the radical left’s woke agenda,” a Sanders spokeswoman said. “Arkansas isn’t going to rewrite the rules of biology just to please a handful of far-left advocates.”

Alabama, Oklahoma and Tennessee previously signed laws enforcing bathroom restrictions for transgender people. The Oklahoma and Tennessee bills are currently at the center of lawsuits. School bathroom bills in Iowa and Idaho could be signed soon as well.

“It’s a flagrant message from them that they refuse to respect [transgender people’s] rights and humanity, to respect Arkansans’ rights and humanity,” Holly Dickson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, said after Sanders signed the bill.

Earlier this month, the Arkansas Senate approved a controversial bill that could result in transgender people facing charges of misdemeanor sexual indecency with a child if they enter a public bathroom while a child is inside. To go into effect, the bill would need to be approved by the House, which, like the Senate, has a Republican majority.

With News Wire Services