Is It a Crime for a Transgendered Person to Use the "Wrong" Bathroom?

The General Assembly recently passed, and the Governor recently signed, HB 2 (S.L. 2016-3), popularly known as "the bathroom bill." This post considers whether it is now a crime for a transgendered person to use the bathroom of the sex with which he or she identifies. More than bathrooms. The bill is about more than bathrooms, as discussed in detail in this blog post by my colleague Trey Allen. But it does include provisions about bathrooms, and those provisions are the focus of this post. No effect on private businesses' bathrooms. The bill concerns only bathrooms operated by school boards and other state and local government entities. It doesn't prevent private businesses from making multiple occupancy bathrooms available by gender identity. Focus on multiple occupancy bathrooms. The focus of the bill is multiple occupancy bathrooms. Although some of the language isn't perfectly clear -- at least to me -- it seems that government entities have greater discretion in determining access to single occupancy bathrooms. Government entities must establish single-sex bathrooms, with sex determined by birth certificate. The pertinent language for school boards is in Section 1.1 of the bill: they "shall establish single-sex multiple occupancy bathroom and changing facilities." Additional provisions in Section 1.2 of the bill clarify that "sex" means biological sex as stated on a person's birth certificate. The language for other public agencies is in Section 1.3 of the bill: they "shall require every multiple occupancy bathroom or changing facility to be designated for and only used by persons based on their biological sex," again as stated on [...]