Mississippi enacts transgender bathroom ban in public schools

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill into law Monday that would bar transgender people from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identities in the state’s public schools.

The legislation, titled the Securing Areas for Females Effectively and Responsibly Act, or the “SAFER Act,” mandates that the state’s schools have single-sex restrooms, changing rooms and dormitories. Its text defines someone’s sex as “‘determined solely by a birth,’ without regard to the fluidity of how someone acts or feels.”

Reeves, a Republican, wrote in a statement on X that the law — which takes effect immediately — is intended to “keep Mississippi’s daughters safe.”

“It’s mind blowing that this is what Joe Biden’s America has come to,” he wrote. “Having to pass common sense policies that protect women’s spaces was unimaginable just a few years ago. But here we are… we have to pass a law to protect women in bathrooms, sororities, locker rooms, dressing rooms, shower rooms, and more.”

The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Rob Hill, the Mississippi state director for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, called the new law an attempt to “strip basic rights from LGBTQ+ people in our state.”

“This bill does nothing but attempt to push us further apart at the expense of LGBTQ+ people, who deserve the freedom to be and to use bathrooms and locker rooms without the prying eyes of politicians peering over the stall,” Hill said in a statement. “Shame on the governor and the MAGA agenda of hate.”

Since lawmakers in North Carolina sparked national outrage in 2016 by passing a similar measure into law — which was partially repealed the next year — 10 other states have also