(Compiled from news services)

A Florida bill would fine or imprison a person who enters a public, single-sex bathroom, dressing room, fitting room, locker room, shower or any place with a reasonable expectation of privacy if that person was not born a biological member of that sex.

The Single-Sex Public Facilities Act introduced by state Rep. Frank Artiles, R-Miami, would fine a person up to $1,000 or send them to prison for one year if convicted and disproportionately target Florida’s transgender community, which won legal protection from discrimination with a human rights ordinance passed by the City of Miami in December.

Artiles’ proposed law does not acknowledge people in the process of transitioning from one gender to another, those whose gender is no longer the one assigned at birth or those born intersex.

Other states have considered measures limiting transgender people’s access to public facilities.

In Arizona, a state lawmaker proposed a “bathroom bill” in 2013 that would have restricted transgender people to restrooms for people of their birth sex. The lawmaker later withdrew the bill following an outcry from advocates.

Utah legislators failed to pass a measure in 2014 that would have blocked transgender students from using bathrooms for either men or women and instead required schools to provide them with separate facilities.

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