The Senate Judiciary C Committee Tuesday unanimously approved a pair of anti-civil rights bills, one barring transgender people from using bathrooms designated for their gender in public facilities and another allowing police to arrest anyone approaching them within 25 feet.
Under the so-called “Bathroom Bill,” House Bill 608, would apply to bathrooms, changing rooms, sleeping areas in shelters, dorms and other spaces in public schools, domestic violence shelters and prisons.
Additionally, it requires public schools to label all bathrooms either for men, women or members of the same family.
The bill was approved unanimously by voice vote, with no Democrats present.
If signed into law by Gov. Jeff Landry, the bill would potentially put the state at odds with federal law, which requires prisons to provide trans people with private bathroom facilities. Incarcerated trans people are far more likely to be sexually harassed or assaulted than other incarcerated people.
The bill could also subject people, regardless of their gender, to harassment by police if someone accuses them of violating the law. The bill authors allege the bill is designed to prevent sexual assaults, which are already illegal, and there is no evidence that trans people using a bathroom designated for their gender increase the risk of assaults.
Also approved on voice vote was HB 173, which would allow police to arrest anyone within 25 feet of them while they are engaged in their “duties.” The bill is in response to members of the public and media filming situations like the police killing of George Floyd and more recent videos of police violence against protesters on college campuses.
Current law already makes interfering with police executing their duties a crime. The new bill would severely limit the ability of the public and reporters to document police activities. The bill appears to run afoul of the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Lawmakers passed a similar bill last year, which then-Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, vetoed. Current Gov. Jeff Landry supports the measure.
Meanwhile, the committee did approve a measure that would provide themselves and other legislators with safeguards: HB 823, which bars guns and other dangerous weapons in the Capitol Building.
Current state law already makes carrying a gun in the Capitol Building illegal.
That vote comes even as the legislature has rejected a bill to limit guns at parades and appears posed to kill a measure to make carrying a concealed weapon in the French Quarter and other parts of the city illegal.
House Bill 627 would have made it illegal to carry a concealed handgun without a permit 100 feet from a parade.
