TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A bill filed within the Florida House and Senate would make it a criminal offense if an individual refuses to leave a bathroom that does not match their sex assigned at birth.
CS/HB 1521, dubbed the “Safety in Private Spaces Act,” would make it a second-degree misdemeanor for folks 18 years or older to use a restroom or converting facility designated for the other sex if they decline to right away leave when requested.
The bill would additionally require tutorial establishments to determine “disciplinary procedures” for violators beneath the age of 18.
“Florida does not currently make it a crime for a person of one sex to enter a restroom or changing room intended for use by the opposite sex,” a House of Representatives staff analysis states.
However, the bill states, “the Legislature finds that females and males should be provided restrooms and changing facilities for their exclusive use in order to maintain public safety, decency, and decorum.”
Exceptions are integrated for the next cases:
- For helping or chaperoning a minor kid, aged individual, or disabled individual
- For regulation enforcement or governmental regulatory functions
- For emergency eventualities
- For custodial, upkeep, or inspection functions, if not in use
- If the correct designated restroom or converting facility is out of order or beneath restore and the other designated restroom or converting facility accommodates nobody of the other sex.
This bill does not practice to people born with genetically or biochemically verifiable issues of sex tendencies.
If handed, the bill would take impact on July 1, 2023.