Students will have to use bathrooms that match gender at birth under SC budget provision

Students will have to use bathrooms and locker rooms in schools that match their gender at birth under a provision that will be included in the state’s annual spending plan.

The proposal put forward by state Sen. Wes Climer, R-York, during the Senate’s budget debate in April because of a situation of an 18-year-old person assigned male at birth changing in a high school women’s locker room.

But the proviso wasn’t included in the House budget, which forced Thursday’s vote in a six-member conference committee between the House and Senate. The conference committee has been meeting to finalize a spending plan for the state that takes effect July 1.

The annual budget also includes one-year laws called provisos that instructs how recipients of state money, such as school districts, can spend the state dollars.

The proviso comes over the ongoing debate over transgender rights around the country and in the state, and whether children under 18 years old may identify with a gender different from the one assigned at birth. Earlier this year the governor signed a bill to restrict gender transition procedures and care for anyone under 18 years old.

State Rep. Leon Stavrinakis, D-Charleston, was the lone conference committee member to vote against including the proviso in the final budget. He declined to comment.

Legislation to require students use the bathroom or changing facility that matches their gender at birth was introduced in the House before this year’s session, but never moved out of committee.

Including the proviso in the budget puts the policy in place for at least one year.

“There’s been at least two examples I’ve been made aware of where there have been boys creating mischief and girls locker rooms under the guise that they can go in either one,” said House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister. “So we just want to make it clear from a policy that we want the boys in the boys locker room and the girls in the girls locker room and this was the vehicle by which we can make that statement right now.”