Group files initiative on transgender bathrooms

OLYMPIA – A group that wants to repeal a Washington state rule allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify is trying once again to overturn that policy at the ballot.

The “Just Want Privacy” campaign filed its second attempt at an initiative on Monday. Last year, the group failed to gather enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

The first effort of an initiative came following news that a state regulation took effect at the end of 20015 that required buildings open to the public – including schools – to allow transgender people to use restrooms and locker rooms of the gender they identify with. The state Human Rights Commission said the new rule was a clarification of the state’s existing anti-discrimination law that added transgender people as a protected class in 2006. The commission was created by the Legislature and is responsible for administering and enforcing that law.