Mississippi Governor Signs Bill Banning Men from Women’s Bathrooms (and Vice Versa) in Public Buildings

Mississippi governor Tate Reeves signed a bill into law on Monday effectively banning men who say they are women from entering or using women’s restrooms, locker rooms, and other changing facilities in the state’s public buildings.

The legislation, known as the Securing Areas for Females Effectively and Responsibly (SAFER) Act, mandates that public buildings, including colleges and universities, provide sex-exclusive or unisex bathrooms to prevent individuals from entering those spaces based on their gender identity. The bill upholds the importance of biological sex, which its final text distinguishes between “an individual’s ‘gender identity’ or any other terms intended to convey a person’s psychological, chosen or subjective experience or sense of self.”

Reeves announced the newly enacted legislation on social media, touting the commonsense measure as “a win for girls and women across our state” and a blow to Democrats and the Biden administration.

“There’s no doubt that the left will continue to come up with more kooky ideas that harm biological women,” the Republican governor wrote on X. “And there’s no doubt that Mississippi will continue to push back on them. That’s because we have to — protecting girls and women from the left’s dangerous agenda is just too important to ignore.”

The SAFER Act defines a woman as “a human female who is not a minor” and a female as “an individual who has, had, will have through the course of normal development, or would have had, but for a developmental anomaly, genetic anomaly, disease, or injury, the reproductive system that at some point produces ova.”

Riley Gaines, the former University of Kentucky swimmer who lost to male opponent Lia Thomas in 2022, praised the Mississippi law’s explicit definitions, arguing the term “woman” should be codified in all 50 states.

Under the law, a changing facility constitutes a dressing room, fitting room, locker room, changing room, or shower room. Those who refuse to leave those sex-designated spaces will be charged with misdemeanor trespassing.

While it broadly prohibits men from entering women’s restrooms and vice versa, the SAFER Act does allow parents to chaperone their children of the opposite sex into public restrooms. Exceptions are also provided for those who help disabled and vulnerable people into restrooms.

Mississippi became the latest state to enact a transgender bathroom law. At least eleven others — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah — have approved similar policies.

North Carolina passed one in 2016 but ended up repealing it a year later after facing financial boycotts from major companies and institutions. The bill, according to an Associated Press analysis at the time, will ultimately cost the state more than $3.76 billion in lost business over a dozen years.