Judge blocks Tennessee’s public notices of transgender bathroom use

A federal judge has blocked a Tennessee law requiring public places to post a sign outside restrooms warning of transgender usage after pro-LGBT business owners said the law was stigmatizing to transgender people.

The Tennessee businesses filed a federal lawsuit last month arguing that the recently passed state law violates the First Amendment.

U.S. District Judge Aleta Arthur Trauger, a Clinton appointee, agreed with them, issuing an order on Friday blocking the state from enforcing the law.

“The Act unambiguously mandates that the plaintiffs and other regulated parties speak a particular message, in public, that they have shown, with evidence, that they earnestly consider to be anathema to their beliefs and values,” the judge wrote. “It even tells them what colors to use: red and yellow, like a hazard sign. That the First Amendment would look askance at such a practice, therefore, should surprise no one.”

A spokesman for Tennessee Fire Marshal Carter Lawrence, the named defendant in the lawsuit, refused to comment on the order or about the possibility of an appeal.

Hedy Weinberg, executive director for the ACLU of Tennessee, said the law was harmful to transgender individuals.

“We are glad the court saw that this law is likely unconstitutional and hope that the state gives up the wasteful effort to defend discrimination and a violation of the First Amendment,” Ms. Weinberg said.

Under the statute which was set to go into effect July 1, a sign would have been posted outside restrooms where transgender individuals may be present, reading: “This facility maintains a policy of allowing the use of restrooms by either biological sex, regardless of the designation on the restroom.”

Business owners who didn’t display the sign could be punished with six months in jail and a $500 fine. 

Tennessee state Rep. Tim Rudd had sponsored the law and said it was aimed to protect children and women from people who may take advantage of policies allowing the opposite sex to enter group restrooms and locker rooms, according to court papers.

Since March, there have been about half a dozen new laws implemented in the Volunteer State that involve the rights of transgender individuals and biological women.