Vote tally Thursday on Michigan House Bill 4024, which would restrict student access to certain bathrooms and changing areas based on the person’s gender at birth, effectively banning transgender students from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity. (Michigan Advance, screenshot)

The Republican-led Michigan House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill dictating which bathrooms K-12 and higher education students can use, a move that LGBTQ+ advocates have called a seeming violation of the state’s hallmark civil rights law.

House Bill 4024, sponsored by state Rep. Joseph Fox, R-Fremont, passed the House on a party line vote of 58 to 46. Democratic representatives including Alabas Farhat, Peter Herzberg, Donavan McKinney, Cynthia Neeley and Karen Whitsett did not vote on the bill. Rep. Betsy Coffia of Traverse City also did not vote on the bill but is recuperating from brain surgery.

The policy would restrict student access to certain bathrooms and changing areas based on the person’s gender at birth, effectively banning transgender students from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity. It has zero chance of passing in the Democratic-led Senate.

Still, state Rep. Brad Paquette, R-Niles, spoke in support of the bill on the House floor and defended “sex-based spaces in Michigan schools.”

“Little girls are being discriminated against in their sex-based spaces in this state, and that must end,” Paquette said, adding that those who are misled to believe they have gender identity disorder “should not be invading the spaces of the little girls in this state.”

That basic premise, in which gender is defined solely on one’s reproductive organs, is at odds with the scientific consensus about the complexity of what determines biological sex in humans.

State Rep. Helena Scott, D-Detroit, spoke in opposition to the bill.

If enacted, Scott said the bill would infringe on civil rights by denying people access to bathroom facilities aligned with their gender identity.

“This is a violation of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act,” Scott said. “As lawmakers, it is our responsibility to protect the rights of Michiganders, most certainly including those of our kids and students. This legislation defies that very important responsibility by rolling back rights and eroding discrimination protections outlined in ELCRA. ”

Scott said enforcement of the policy would be a near impossible feat, and she likened it to a distraction as the state faces a looming government shutdown over stalled budget negotiations.

“What Michigan kids and students really need is funding for their schools,” Scott said before being gaveled down by House Speaker Pro Tem Rep. Rachelle Smit, R-Martin.

In response to the bill’s passage, Erin Knott, executive director of Equality Michigan, said the policy would surely violate ELCRA. Knott also touched on the fact that the House was concerning itself with who uses which bathroom instead of ending the budget stalemate.

“Weeks away from a state shutdown, the Michigan House would rather be bathroom police than do their jobs,” Knott said. “While they’re obsessing over bathroom policies, Michigan families need them focused on funding our schools and making the economy work. This policy is rooted in bias against trans people that goes against Michigan values of fairness and equality.”

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