HELENA – A proposed Montana ballot initiative that would allow people to sue for emotional or mental distress if they spot a transgender person in a public bathroom has passed a legal review.

Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton’s office says the initiative’s sponsors can begin gathering signatures Wednesday to place the measure on the 2018 ballot.

The measure is designed to keep transgender people out of school, university and government restrooms and locker rooms that are designated for the sex with which they identify.

Instead, people would have to use the bathrooms for the gender on their birth certificate.

The conservative group Montana Family Foundation, which is sponsoring the measure, must collect signatures from 5 percent of Montana’s voters from at least 34 legislative House districts.

That’s more than 25,800 signatures.