Sarah Huckabee Sanders Signs Arkansas Trans Bathroom Ban
ABC News.“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,” Alexa Henning, a spokesperson for the governor, said in a statement. “Arkansas isn’t going to rewrite the rules of biology just to please a handful of far-left advocates.”Under the Arkansas law, schools may choose to provide single-stall bathrooms to transgender students who do not wish to use facilities matching their assigned sex at birth.However, critics argue that some schools may not have the space or funding to create single-stall facilities, and the law doesn’t provide any additional funding that would allow those schools to make such renovations.While so-called “bathroom bills” like the one signed by Sanders had dwindled immediately following the backlash that North Carolina experienced in 2016 after it passed a law prohibiting transgender people from using gender-affirming facilities, Republicans in nearly every state have seized upon discomfort with gender-nonconformity as a political wedge issue over the past three years.Armed with an issue that not only plays to their conservative religious base, but which they believe can sway even Democratic-leaning constituencies, Republican lawmakers have proposed or passed laws targeting the transgender community.Such bills include banning gender-affirming care for minors, banning transgender athletes from competing in female-designated sports, and banning public displays of drag — or requiring businesses that host drag performances to register as “adult-oriented” businesses — all in the name of protecting children.
