Transgender faculty and staff at Florida state colleges will be fired if they use a bathroom that aligns with their gender identity, according to a new Florida Board of Education rule approved Wednesday.
The rule requires Florida State College institutions to update their student and employee handbooks, disciplinary procedures and code of conduct to adhere to House Bill 1521, which states people must use restrooms and changing facilities that align with their sex assigned at birth.
Both students and employees at Florida colleges must follow the guidelines, and the rule not only applies to instructional facilities, but also to student housing owned or operated by the institution or its support organizations.
“Bathroom spaces are very intimate and private,” said board member Grazie P. Christie. “There is historically and cross culturally accurate reasons why males and females use different spaces in those intimate moments, not just for girls and women, but also for boys and men. This is not something that as a culture we should ditch because of very, very new ideologies that are challenging the science of male and female, which doesn’t change because biology doesn’t change.”
Critics say the new rule goes beyond the scope of HB 1521.
“Trans people just want to pee in a stall safely and mind their own business, and now college students can’t even do that in their own housing,” said Max Fenning, founder and executive director of PRISM, an LGBTQ advocacy group.
Starting April 1, 2024, each institution’s president must fill out a form with the Florida Department of Education certifying that bathrooms are either segregated by sex assigned at birth or are unisex, and that disciplinary procedures are in place for those who violate the rule.
The rule only applies to the Florida College System, which is under the jurisdiction of the board and includes 28 colleges across the state including Daytona State College, Florida State College at Jacksonville, Indian River State College, Pensacola State College and Tallahassee Community College.
If any complaints of violations are made, the institution must have a process for investigations. While the rule suggests disciplinary actions follow a progressive process, it adds that the specific circumstances of the report should be considered when deciding what action to take.
“Nothing in this rule prohibits an institution from immediately terminating an employee for such a violation,” the rule states, and two offenses must result in the termination of an employee.
More:What are the new school bathroom laws? What to know if you’re a trans student in Florida
Carlos Guillermo Smith, a senior policy advisor for Equality Florida, who is also running for state Senate after losing re-election in the House last year, questioned what will happen to trans faculty and staff if there isn’t a unisex bathroom available on campus.
“They’re going to face termination, they’re going to be routed out of the Florida college system,” he said, adding the new rule was reminiscent of the state’s Johns Committee in the 1950s, when the legislature created a committee to investigate communists and gay people in Florida universities.
New rules also apply to Florida’s K-12 private schools
Also on Wednesday, the board passed a rule that would require Florida’s K-12 private schools to create guidelines similar to those passed at a meeting in July requiring public schools to segregate bathrooms and changing facilities by sex assigned at birth.
Additionally, the rule requires employees to follow the Principles of Professional Conduct for the Education Profession, which were amended at a July board meeting to say employees must use bathrooms that match their sex assigned at birth and cannot go by pronouns that do not match their sex assigned at birth.
Unlike the form public schools must submit, private schools must submit an annual survey with numerous questions about the makeup of the student population, whether or not the school is affiliated with a specific religion, whether or not the school offers classes specifically for disabled students, and more. There are no boxes to check regarding what types of bathrooms and facilities the school has; rather, the form states that by submitting the application, the school is “providing an assurance that it is fully compliant” with the law.
HB 1521 went into effect July 1 and requires people of any age to use certain public bathrooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth, school districts, colleges and government offices to establishes rules of conduct and disciplinary measures; correctional facilities to house females and males separately “based on their sex;” and establishes willful entering and refusing to leave a restroom or changing facility for the opposite sex by anyone 18 and over as a second-degree misdemeanor.
The law was part of a “Let Kids be Kids” bill package Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in mid-May.
“Florida is proud to lead the way in standing up for our children,” said DeSantis, who is running to be the Republican nominee for president. “As the world goes mad, Florida represents a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy.”
Ana Goñi-Lessan is the State Watchdog Reporter for USA TODAY – Florida and can be reached at AGoniLessan@tallahassee.com. Follow her on Twitter @goni_lessan. Finch Walker is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact them at 321-290-4744 or fwalker@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @_finchwalker.