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A controversial bill that would require transgender students at Virginia public schools to use the restroom and locker room of their biological sex was killed by a House of Delegates subcommittee Tuesday on a 8-13 vote.

The bill, House Bill 781, gained wide attention this year after critics suggested it would require school employees to check students’ genitals. The bill’s patron, Del. Mark L. Cole, R-Spotsylvania, dismissed those suggestions as false, saying the proposal was meant to protect students’ privacy and ward off lawsuits against local school boards.

“I think this will help protect schools from being sued over the issue of allowing someone of the opposite sex to use the facilities that are designated one way or the other,” Cole said during a hearing before the House General Laws Committee. “This is not about discrimination, this is about privacy.”

The bill would have required local school boards to adopt policies requiring that all restrooms and locker rooms accessible by multiple students be “designated for and only used by students based on their biological sex.” The legislation would have applied to all public buildings owned by the state. Violations would carry a $50 civil penalty.