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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Just Want Privacy files initiative to overturn Washington’s rule governing use of restrooms by transgender people

The political committee Just Want Privacy is taking another stab at putting an initiative before voters that would cancel a state rule allowing transgender people to use restrooms and other public facilities based on their gender identity.

The group filed the initiative Monday.

In July, a similar petition failed to get enough signatures. According to Just Want Privacy, the petition had 181,278 of the needed 246,372 signatures.

“The current rule trains women to ignore their red flags and boundaries, which is not only psychologically harmful, it’s actually dangerous,” said Just Want Privacy’s founder Joseph Backholm in a news release. “The list of males doing harmful things in women’s spaces has only multiplied this past year. We cannot ignore the urgency of addressing this threat.

State lawmakers also filed a bill prohibiting transgender people from using bathrooms matching their gender identity.

Throughout its campaign Just Want Privacy has maintained that the state rule allows men to enter women’s bathrooms, potentially endangering women and children. However, according to the Human Rights Commission, the rule does no such thing.

The commission said in a February news release that the rule doesn’t allow men to go into women’s locker rooms; instead, “only women, including transgender women, can go into the women’s locker room.”