North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum signs bill to restrict transgender K-12 students’ pronouns, bathroom access

BISMARCK — A new law in North Dakota places constraints on how transgender K-12 students are treated in school and where they can use the bathroom.

Gov. Doug Burgum on Monday, May 8, signed House Bill 1522 — among the last in a raft of socially conservative gender-related proposals to receive his approval. The legislation, which took effect when Burgum signed it, was one of the final bills the governor had to act on after lawmakers adjourned in April.

The bill sponsored by Rep. Scott Dyk, R-Williston, prohibits transgender K-12 students from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity, though schools, with parental permission, may designate separate restroom accommodations for transgender students.

Dyk’s bill also bars schools from adopting policies that require or prohibit “any individual from using a student's preferred gender pronoun.”

A late Senate amendment to the legislation added in pieces of a different bill vetoed by Burgum in March. Those provisions block school districts and their governing boards from creating policies to accommodate transgender students unless parents give explicit permission. Teachers also are prohibited from withholding information about students’ “transgender status” from parents.

The proposal passed both Republican-dominated chambers by wide margins.

Burgum said in a statement Monday that the bill was "improved through amendments" after his veto of related legislation.

"House Bill 1522 largely codifies existing practices while reaffirming the First Amendment right to free speech, requiring restroom accommodations, balancing the rights and interests of students, parents and teachers, and not including the concerning language from the previously vetoed and sustained SB 2231," Burgum said.

Bill supporters said it would uphold biological truths and protect female students in bathrooms.

Dyk caused a stir in January when he claimed without evidence that a Williston high school football team beat up a transgender student who had used a girls' bathroom. Williston school officials said the claim was false and demanded Dyk apologize and retract his comment. The lawmaker refused to back off his statement.

LGBTQ advocates and education officials said the bill is unnecessary and harmful to already vulnerable transgender youth.

American Civil Liberties Union lobbyist Cody Schuler said Monday the new law illegally discriminates against transgender youth and puts them at risk of harassment and violence in bathrooms that don't match their gender identity.

“It doesn’t infringe on anyone else’s rights to share spaces with those who are different," Schuler said in a statement. "Like previous efforts to expel people of color, people with disabilities, and others from communal spaces, these arguments for privacy and safety just mask a fear of difference.

“The fight for trans rights is not about ‘special rights’ — it’s about fundamental rights," Schuler added. "It’s about fairness and equality for all.”

A spokeswoman for the ACLU did not respond to a question about whether the organization will sue the state over the new law. The ACLU has recently filed lawsuits in several other Republican-led states over legislation that puts restrictions on transgender people.

Republican lawmakers showed an elevated interest this year in gender identity issues, a trend mirrored in conservative statehouses across the nation. In addition to Dyk’s proposal, the Legislature and Burgum approved bills to criminalize gender-affirming treatments for transgender minors and to restrict transgender females’ participation in sports.

Burgum signed two other gender-related bills Monday that will take effect in August:

• House Bill 1474 will define "male" and "female" in state law as being based on one's sex at birth, which supporters say upholds biological truths. Opponents say the legislation effectively erases transgender people from data collection.
• House Bill 1297 will ban amendment of sex designation on birth records “due to a gender identity change,” with few exceptions, such as a data entry error or if “the sex of the individual was changed with anatomically correct genitalia for the identified sex as certified by a medical provider.”

Bismarck Tribune reporter Jack Dura contributed to this report.