Legislative Recap: Protecting Women - The Riley Gaines Women's Safety and Protection Act

Women and girls in Tennessee have a right to safety, dignity, and privacy in the spaces designed to protect them. They have a right to compete on a level playing field. And they have a right to elected officials who will not pretend that biology is optional.

The Riley Gaines Women's Safety and Protection Act, HB 571, recognizes and codifies those rights. The legislation requires public higher education institutions, domestic violence shelters, and juvenile detention and correctional facilities to designate changing rooms, showering facilities, and restrooms by sex. People who encounter an individual of the opposite sex in those facilities have a private right of action if the institution intentionally allowed that person to enter or failed to take reasonable steps to prevent it.

The bill also writes essential definitions into Tennessee law. Sex, as defined in this legislation, means immutable biological sex. It does not include gender identity or other subjective terms. Male and female mean what they have always meant. Tennessee no longer leaves these foundational terms to be redefined by activists, federal regulators, or judicial whim.

This is not a complicated issue for the families I represent in Hamilton County. Mothers want their daughters safe in locker rooms. Survivors of domestic violence want shelters to be sanctuaries free from male presence. Female athletes want a fair shot at the trophies, scholarships, and records they have trained for their entire lives. All of those things are reasonable. All of those things are now protected in Tennessee law.

We also passed HB 1552 to ensure victims of domestic violence and other crimes can use a substitute address to keep their home address hidden from their abusers. We expanded self-defense protections to include victims of human trafficking through HB 1354. And the Attorney General will continue to have the authority to enforce these laws and seek civil penalties when institutions fail to comply.

This was a session where Tennessee said clearly and on the record that protecting women is not negotiable. I was proud to stand with that majority.