An anti-transgender bill was introduced in the Minnesota House on Wednesday that could scale back gender-inclusive schools policies across the state if passed.

HF0041 would bar schools from allowing transgender and gender nonconforming students from using the facilities of their gender. It also defines “sex” in state law as a restrictive categories of male and female (The majority of research on sex and gender has shown that both are highly variable in humans).

The bill states in part:

The purpose of this section is to protect and provide for the

privacy and safety of all students enrolled in public schools and to maintain order and dignity

in restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, showers, and other facilities where students

may be in various states of undress in the presence of other students.

Subd. 2. Definitions. (a) For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the

meanings given them.

(b) “Sex” means the physical condition of being male or female, which is determined

by a person’s chromosomes and is identified at birth by a person’s anatomy.

(c) “Public school” means a public school under section 120A.05, subdivisions 9, 11,

13, and 17, and a charter school under chapter 124E.

Subd. 3. Student physical privacy protection. (a) A public school student restroom,

locker room, changing room, and shower room accessible by multiple students at the same

time shall be designated for the exclusive use by students of the male sex only or by students

of the female sex only.

(b) A public school student restroom, locker room, changing room, and shower room

that is designated for the exclusive use of one sex shall be used only by members of that

sex.

(c) In any other public school facility or setting where a student may be in a state of

undress in the presence of other students, school personnel shall provide separate, private,

and safe areas designated for use by students based on their sex

A similar piece of legislation passed the Minnesota House in an omnibus bill in 2015 but did not become law.

The bills authors are Republicans Duane Quam of Byron and Steve Drazkowski of Mazeppa.