Kentucky students using sex-segregated bathrooms and locker rooms could win $2,500 if they catch a member of the excluded biological sex there, under proposed legislation.

The bill intends to crack down on school employees who allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms designated for the opposite biological sex.

But, as written, the bill authorizes lawsuits not only if school personnel approved of such facility use, but also if they “[f]ailed to take reasonable steps to prohibit the person encountered from using facilities designated for use by the opposite biological sex.”

Students who sue in state courts, the bill says, would be entitled to $2,500 for each violation and are also eligible for damages for psychological and emotional harm. The offending school would foot the bill, along with all attorney fees.



The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Sen. C.B. Embry, tells U.S. News the measure may need modification. He says he wouldn’t want teens to stage incidents to win payouts.

Embry says he wrote the bill at the request of the Family Foundation of Kentucky, in response to a Louisville, Ky., high school's decision to allow a transgender student to use female facilities. That decision was upheld by an oversight board.

The bill would require "the best available accommodation" for individual transgender students whose parents or legal guardians request it in writing, including use of single-person or faculty facilities.

Though Embry says he’s received strident blowback, including "extremely ugly" emails, he says he’s not prejudiced and believes students should be allowed to dress however they like.



“They’re certainly welcome to live their lives as they choose, if they want to dress as the opposite sex and the school is OK with that, that’s fine,” he says.

Embry says while he believes it’s important to keep transgender students from making members of the opposite biological sex uncomfortable, he doesn’t support banning gay and lesbian students from places where peers of the same sex are in a state of undress.

“I don’t think we can create a situation where no one is ever offended or uncomfortable,” says the state senator, who claims he knows of at least one gay person who supports his effort.

“I have a friend, and we can all say these things, who is a homosexual and she agrees that she doesn’t want men in her bathroom,” he says.



Embry also says he's supportive of anti-bullying laws that protect sexual minorities along with other groups – often a worrying prospect for religious conservatives and some libertarians.

“I am very much in favor of strong anti-bullying laws that protect students no matter what the reason for bullying may be: fat or short, don't speak plain, sexual orientation, whatever,” he says. In 2012, he opposed a bill that would have required schools to ban bullying based on sexual orientation or gender identity, describing existing laws as sufficient.