The Utah Senate approved a bathroom bill Thursday following a flurry of late changes to the policy and mixed messages from lawmakers about what the bill actually does.
After introducing significant changes to HB257 in a second substitute of the bill on Wednesday to remove language barring transgender individuals from restrooms that don’t match their designated sex at birth, floor sponsor Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, on Thursday introduced a new draft of the bill that defines gender-specific bathrooms to exclude transgender people — a dramatic and surprising reversal from the day before.
McCay’s recent substitute reverts to previous restrictions on individuals using restrooms that don’t match their sex designation in government-owned buildings, although there are no criminal penalties or enforcement mechanism for violating the bill.
The senator described his amendment as doing what the original bill intended, although “in a different way.”
“Instead of making this about enforcement, we define what bathrooms are and we define who belongs in what bathroom and how to, I guess, qualify to be in one bathroom or another,” he said. “And I think that definition makes it very clear.”