Each year, thousands of Utahns subjected to sexual assault and domestic violence find shelter, emotional support and legal help at crisis centers throughout the state.
But a new bill that would keep transgender people from accessing those services in Utah could lead to many of the already resource-starved facilities losing millions of dollars. For some of the state’s service providers, that could mean losing as much as 70% of their budget. In fiscal 2023, Utah’s Office for Victims of Crime received nearly $17 million in federal funding to provide care to those victims.
After changing the legal definitions of “female” and “male” to exclude transgender people, Morgan Republican Rep. Kera Birkeland’s “Sex-based Designations for Privacy, Anti-bullying and Women’s Opportunities,” or HB257, would bar them from entering sex-specific spaces.
HB257 passed out of the Senate Business and Labor Committee on Monday, with Woods Cross Republican Sen. Todd Weiler joining the two Democrats on that committee in voting against it. Among the list of reasons he said he did not support it was the threat the bill poses to federal funding for victim services.
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