House approves bill on bathrooms in SC K-12 schools and colleges with 2 changes

COLUMBIA — Legislation that extends existing state law on K-12 bathrooms to South Carolina’s 33 public colleges passed the House on Thursday with bipartisan support.

The bill largely mimics a law inserted in the state budget in 2024, which threatens to withhold state aid from school districts if students receive permission to use multi-stalled bathrooms or changing facilities, such as locker rooms, that don’t align to their biological sex at birth. Beyond extending those rules to colleges, the proposal also lets people sue as a way of enforcement.

The 96-19 vote followed approval of two changes: One requires every K-12 school and college to provide at least one single-user restroom and changing facility. The other limits who can sue a school to its employees and students. They can sue if they “encounter a person of the opposite sex” while using a facility. At colleges, students can sue if they’re required to live in the same room with someone of the opposite biological sex.

It can’t just be “someone from another state who shows up” on a university campus, especially since the bill would apply to bathrooms at college sports arenas and stadiums, said Rep. Seth Rose, D-Columbia, who co-sponsored the amendment but voted against the bill.

All 19 “no” votes to the amended bill came from Democrats. Eight Democrats voted for the bill. Six Democrats were there but didn’t vote.

Toward the end of the debate that stretched over two days, Rep. Heath Sessions of Rock Hill came to the podium to explain how a discussion with his daughter resulted in the original law.

Overhearing his teenage daughter talk about she and her girlfriends limiting how much water they drank at school, he asked why she’d do such a thing.

“She said, ‘Well, there’s a boy allowed to use our bathrooms,” Sessions said, adding “I didn’t think that was a problem that needed a legislative fix. I was searching for a commonsense decision.”

But local school officials told him their “hands were tied,” he said. So, since it was already late in the session, and the budget was up for debate in the Senate, he asked Sen. Wes Climer, also of Rock Hill, to propose the budget rule during floor debate. And it passed.

It’s been in the budget ever since, as budget rules — though officially one-year laws — roll over from one year to the next. No one tried to take it out last year, despite a federal lawsuit challenging it.

A lawsuit filed in November 2024 on behalf of a then-eighth-grade transgender student in Berkeley County is on pause until the U.S. Supreme Court hands down a decision on cases involving laws in West Virginia and Idaho on transgender athletes.

“I’ve heard around this room that it’s legislation in search of a problem,” Sessions said. “Our students should feel comfortable in classrooms, bathrooms, locker rooms, whatever. … I share my daughter’s experience to shed light, humanity. This was a commonsense solution for me, and I have to trust local educators to deliver it with common courtesy.”

On Wednesday, a Senate panel took up a similar bill sponsored by Climer but took no vote. At its next meeting, the panel could take up the House bill. A perfunctory vote by the House next week will officially send that bill across the lobby.

“Girls deserve privacy and protection in their private spaces,” Climer, who’s running for Congress, said at Wednesday’s hearing. “That is why we’re here.”

But Jace Woodrum, director of the state American Civil Liberties Union chapter, called it unnecessary. Schools already have policies to prevent harassment and assault in bathrooms.

“I resent the suggestion that only transgender people come into these locker rooms to look at people,” said Woodrum, a transgender man.

Woodrum asked why senators didn’t instead make locker rooms safer for students with more privacy measures, such as creating more stalls for children who want to change separately.

In the House, Democrats asked repeatedly: How would anyone know whether a transgender person was in the stall beside them?

“What we are going to create, essentially, are the penis police, who are going to verify that a person who uses the bathroom is using the bathroom of the sex they are assigned to at birth,” said Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, who ultimately didn’t vote on the bill.

Rep. Travis Moore, R-Roebuck, called that nonsense.

Schools risk up to 25% of their state aid if they give students permission to use the facility aligned with their gender identity. The money could be withheld until the district complies. No district has lost aid under the existing law. The bill newly allows for civil lawsuits if a school either gives permission or fails to “take reasonable steps” to follow the rules.

Moore said that could include signage on the bathroom door and a school policy.

“There’s nothing in this bill that criminalizes anything,” said Moore, noting his daughter is on the swim team and should be able to trust “there’s only going to be girls in there when she’s changing into her swimsuit.”

Rep. Courtney Waters, D-Charleston, countered that the bill will lead to baseless allegations, whether out of a child’s ignorance about a person’s sex or because a bully is harassing a classmate.

“Especially in a state where school districts are already strained for resources, we want to avoid litigation and keep money in the school districts’ pockets,” said Waters, a former teacher, who was among the 19 who voted against the bill.

It threatens the dignity of people “falsely accused of being something or someone they’re not,” said Rep. Hamilton Grant, D-Columbia, who also voted “no.”

Some peoples’ appearances don’t fit into expected gender norms, such as women who have short hair and might be mistaken for a man. And some transgender people look like the gender they identify with more than their biological sex at birth, Waters said.

That’s the case for Rep. Tom Hartnett’s close friend, a transgender woman who surgically transitioned two decades ago, the Mount Pleasant Republican said.

She looks nothing like a man but would have to use the men’s bathroom if she visited a school for any reason, such as attending a grandchild’s basketball game, he said Wednesday.

“‘Gee, grandma’s going into the boys’ bathroom. What’s happening?’” Hartnett said he imagined people saying. “It could cause some confusion, and I can see the issue.”

No one may notice if she used the women’s bathroom, but she might not want to risk causing the school to get sued, Hartnett said.

“I’m not trying to put men in women’s rooms or women in men’s rooms,” Hartnett said. “I’m trying to give people like my friend an opportunity to protect their dignity.”

On Thursday, after the House approved his amendment requiring all schools to provide the option of at least one single-use bathroom, he voted for the bill.

Some opponents questioned whether mothers would be banned from bringing their toddler into the bathroom with them or helping a child with a disability. Moore pointed out that the bill specifies that it does not prohibit schools from accommodating people who are disabled, elderly visitors who need help in the bathroom, or young children who need assistance.

House Speaker Pro Tem Tommy Pope, the bill’s main sponsor, said he wanted to find a balance that respects “differences and other people’s choices” without affecting the majority of students.

“I didn’t think we’d ever have to do something like this, but it’s come to that,” said the York Republican.