COLUMBIA, S.C.
A part of the state’s yearly spending plan says that students will have to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match the gender they were when they were born.
In April, state Sen. Wes Climer, R-York, brought up the idea during the Senate’s budget debate. He did this because of an incident involving an 18-year-old person who was born male changing in a high school girls’ locker room.
But the caveat wasn’t in the House budget, so the vote on Thursday had to happen in a six-person conference committee made up of representatives from both the House and the Senate. The conference group has been meeting to make final plans for how the state will spend its money starting July 1.
The yearly budget also includes provisos, which are one-year rules that tell people who get state money, like school districts, how they can spend it.
Transgender rights are still being debated across the country and in the state, as well as whether children younger than 18 can identify with a gender other than the one they were given at birth. This year, the governor signed a bill that limits care and processes for people under 18 years old who want to change their gender.
State Rep. Leon Stavrinakis, D-Charleston, was the only conference committee member who voted against adding the clause to the final budget. He refused to say anything.
Before this year’s session, the House tried to pass a bill that would force students to use the bathroom or changing area that matches their gender at birth, but it never made it out of committee.
The policy will be in place for at least one year since the exception was added to the budget.
House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister said, “I’ve been told of at least two cases where boys got into trouble in girls’ locker rooms by saying they could go in either one.” “So we just want to make it clear from the policy that we want the boys to be in the boys’ locker room and the girls to be in the girls’ locker room. This is how we can say that right now.”
Source: The State
