A bill in Tennessee that would have required students to use the bathroom corresponding to their birth gender has been put on hold for a year.
The bill is similar to the controversial one signed into law in North Carolina last month that has drawn criticism from around the country.
Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mt. Juliet, said Monday she plans on delaying any action on her measure, which would apply to students in public school grades K-12 and higher education institutions. She said she would delay it for a year to study the issue further.
The bill has run into problems before. In March, a House committee sent it for further study and essentially killed it.
“I have learned that our school districts are largely following what the bill says,” she said from her office in Nashville Monday, according to The Tennessean. “I am still absolutely 100 percent in support of maintaining the privacy of all students. But I’m going to roll the bill over until next year so we can work on those issues.”
Lynn said she was “confident that things will be OK” with schools and students’ privacy until the next legislative session.
The threats by some companies to withhold business from Tennessee did not factor into her decision to put the bill on hold, she said.
“I didn’t have one letter from one company saying that they were pulling out of Tennessee or anything because of this bill,” Lynn explained.
However, last week, executives from 60 businesses, such as Cigna, Hilton Hotels and Alcoa Inc., signed a letter delivered to Republican leadership saying they opposed the bill. Various elected officials and musicians, such as Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam and Miley Cyrus, also criticized the measure.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee praised Lynn’s decision to halt the bill, and said her move “helps ensure that every child in Tennessee will be treated with respect and dignity.”
In North Carolina, Republican Gov. Pat McCrory has come under extreme scrutiny for signing into law a bill many say allows for the discrimination of LGBT people. As of now, anyone in North Carolina must use the restroom facility that corresponds with their birth gender.
