Florida university system considers punishing faculty who don’t use restrooms according to biological sex

The governing board behind Florida’s state university system is considering a new rule that would punish faculty members who use school bathrooms not reflective of their biological sex.

The Florida Board of Governors, the group in charge of the State University System of Florida, proposed the policy on Wednesday, to comply with Florida’s law on restroom usage in state facilities.

The state law, also known as HB 1521, “provides requirements for the exclusive use of restrooms & changing facilities by gender” and “prohibits willfully entering restroom or changing facility designated for opposite sex & refusing to depart when asked to do so.”

It further requires public entities like schools to “establish disciplinary procedures or policies” for violation of the law.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., signed HB 1521 into law in May, which requires students and staff to use the bathrooms that correspond to their biological sex. 

Text of the Florida Board of Governor’s proposal says, “Each State university shall comply fully with” HB 1521, in that they will have “restrooms designated for exclusive use by females and restrooms designated for exclusive use by males;” or “Unisex restrooms.”

The board added that university employees who violate the state law will be “subject to their university’s established disciplinary procedures, which must include disciplinary actions up to and including dismissal.”

According to Action News Jax, only one member of the governing board raised objections to the proposal when it was introduced Wednesday, citing concerns over harassment.

Carlos Guillermo Smith, a member of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Florida, denounced the proposal to the Jacksonville outlet, saying it “basically tells [LGBTQ+ faculty] they can’t use the restroom while they’re at work.”

The board is expected to vote on the regulation for the university system at a meeting in November.

The rule is similar to one that was adopted by the Florida Board of Education for the state’s college system, but it goes further and declares that “a second documented offense must result in a termination” of the offending faculty member.

State Rep. Dean Black, R-Yulee, who cosponsored HB 1521, justified the legislation recently, saying, “It’s unclear to me why someone would be confused in the first place, but if it becomes a pattern of behavior, which a second offense clearly is, yeah, I think you should be fired. I think there should be zero tolerance for failure to respect women’s privacy.”

The Board of Governors did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.