Privacy for All, a coalition of parents, students, nonprofit and faith groups, is working to obtain signatures for a petition that would protect privacy in restrooms, showers, locker rooms, and changing rooms in government buildings in California.
In April, the group submitted a ballot initiative to California Attorney General Kamala Harris called the "Personal Privacy Protection Act," which would require individuals to use public facilities according to their biological sex.
The proposed initiative does not require private businesses to maintain sex separated facilities, but will protect establishments from being penalized if they require employees to use facilities in accordance with their biological sex. If approved by California voters, those who violate such privacy standards could face fines "no less than $4,000."
The organization must gather at least 500,000 signatures of registered voters in California by November 20th, 2015 to qualify the "Personal Privacy Protection Act" Initiative for the 2016 ballot.
"Co-ed bathroom is a regression of our society and considerably lowers our moral standards! It gives sex predators the benefit of the doubt and will cause an increase in sex crime!" said Frank Lee, Chairman of Bay Area Advisory Board of Pacific Justice Institute and a member of the steering committee of PFAS in a statement emailed to the Gospel Herald.
"Co-ed bathroom is a major Satanic trend and California's situation will likely set an example for other areas to follow. God will hold us responsible if we do not fight a good battle for Him along this line," he added.
The initiative was created in response to California Assembly Bill 1266, a law that requires public schools to allow students to use their sex-segregated facilities and participate in their sex-segregated programs according to the gender students identify with, regardless of their biological sex.
While supporters of AB 1266 argue the law protects transgender students from being bullied, opponents say violates the privacy of others and hinders the performance of individuals using the facilities and participating in the programs.
"A woman not wanting to use the same dressing or showering area as a man is not discrimination," reads a statement on the Privacy for All website. "The 'Personal Privacy Protection Act' allows for accommodations to be made for those that feel uncomfortable in traditional sex-separated facilities, but those accommodations cannot include invading the privacy of the opposite sex."
The Personal Privacy Protection Act allows individuals who have undergone treatment for gender transition to use facilities according to their new biological sex, and also makes exceptions for family restrooms, single use restrooms, and instances in which a child or person with a medical condition needs assistance from another individual.
"Without this Initiative there is no protection for the privacy of men and women, boys and girls, adults and children, in facilities where privacy is reasonably expected: locker rooms, dressing rooms, restrooms, and showers," the group says. "[I]mpeding on other citizens' right to privacy by creating forced co-ed facilities is not a valid option.
Petition forms can be obtained by going to www.privacyforall.com. Learn more about the initiative here.
