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Rules about bathrooms and transgender students may go before the state legislature soon, but State Rep. John Becker isn't sure exactly what he will propose yet.

(Patrick O'Donnell/The Plain Dealer)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- State Rep. John Becker wants to add rules covering schools to his upcoming bill about bathrooms and transgender people because the federal government is "forcing the issue."

He's just not sure what he wants those rules to be yet.

Becker, a Union Township Republican, has attracted some attention statewide with his plans for a bill that would require people to use bathrooms that correspond to their genitalia, with some limited exceptions.

He said his bill is a response to the policy of Target stores to allow people to use bathrooms that match the gender they identify themselves with, and to a similar law proposed for Cleveland.

"(Target's) reckless policy serves as an invitation to sexual predators to pose as transgender persons in order to gain easy access to a smorgasbord of women and young girls," he wrote on his website, beckerGOP.com. "The city of Cleveland has threatened to do the same."

The announcement Friday from the U.S. Education and Justice departments about transgender students and bathrooms has heightened his desire to include schools in his bill.

The departments are telling states that if schools do not allow students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity, states can lose federal funding.

As reported Friday on Cleveland.com, schools may still provide separate bathrooms and locker rooms on the basis of sex, but must let transgender students use them based on their gender identity.

The guidance did not specifically mention showers, but said when discussing bathrooms and locker rooms that a school could "make individual-user options available to all students who voluntarily seek additional privacy." Furthermore, said the Department of Education, schools "can also take steps to increase privacy within shared facilities."

The Ohio Department of Education is reviewing the federal guidance before offering any advice to districts, as is the Ohio School Boards Association.

"I just started looking at schools, and now they're forcing the issue," Becker said.

He objected to the federal government telling states how to handle the growing controversy.

"There is no constitutional authority for the administration to be involved," he said. "I'd like to remind them to read the 10th amendment to the Constitution."

That amendment says, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."

State Rep. Andrew Brenner, the Powell Republican who chairs the Ohio House Education Committee, agreed with Becker that the "guidance" from the federal department is an overreach.

"It's a states rights issue," Brenner said. "Not a decree from the president."

Becker said that he also wants to know what "objective standard" the federal government expects schools to use to decide who can use which bathroom.

"This is the problem with Target and some of these municipalities that are making these laws," Becker said. "It's whatever gender you identify with? What does that mean? Does that mean that at any point in time someone can say 'I'm a lady today,' and they can start using the ladies' room?"

He said he hopes to talk to school officials before filing a bill to make sure his proposal will help, not cause additional problems. He might find that schools do not need to change much, he said.

"Whatever they're doing is apparently working because I'm not hearing a lot of complaints or a lot of problems," he said.

He added, "I don't want to inadvertently create a problem that doesn't exist. If whatever they (schools) are doing is working, I want it to continue."

State Sen. Peggy Lehner, a Kettering Republican who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said she considers the bathroom issue "over-politicized on both sides."

"Can't it be dealt with by just assuring that both male and female bathrooms have at least one stall with a door, which frankly I think everyone would appreciate," Lehner asked. "Frankly, I am far more interested in assuring that all students have equity in the classroom."