BATHROOM FLASHBACK: Benitez-Thompson Blasted Nevada Bill Requiring Sex-Based School Facilities

A resurfaced 2015 floor speech is putting Democrat congressional candidate Teresa Benitez-Thompson’s record on transgender policy back under the microscope, showing the former Nevada Assembly leader sharply attacking legislation that would have required students to use school bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding with their biological sex.

Assembly Bill 375 would have required public-school restrooms, locker rooms, and showers designated for one biological sex to be used by students of that sex. Students who identified as a different gender were required to receive an alternative accommodation, which could include a single-stall restroom, unisex facility or controlled use of a faculty restroom. 

Benitez-Thompson, now the Democrat candidate for Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District, did not merely vote against the proposal. She went to the Assembly floor and attacked the legislation as fundamentally bad government.

“Regulating bathroom use?” Benitez-Thompson asked lawmakers. “Such regulation is the exact opposite of efficient government, meaningful government, good public policy.”

She added that the measure was “the exact opposite of small government” and said she did not believe it reflected “the spirit of Nevadans.” The remarks are preserved in the official Nevada Assembly Journal from April 21, 2015. 

The bill’s Republican sponsor and supporters argued that the legislation was intended to protect student privacy while still requiring schools to provide accommodations for transgender students. Assemblywoman Vicki Dooling told lawmakers that the proposal would provide “privacy and safety for all children.” 

Opponents saw it very differently.

The ACLU of Nevada called AB 375 discriminatory and argued that requiring transgender students to use separate facilities would violate their privacy and potentially conflict with federal protections. Transgender advocates similarly argued that the bill would isolate vulnerable students and expose them to bullying. 

Benitez-Thompson sided with the opposition.

The Assembly ultimately rejected AB 375 by a razor-thin 22-20 vote. Benitez-Thompson joined every Assembly Democrat and five Republicans in voting against the measure. 

More than a decade later, the remarks carry new political significance as Benitez-Thompson campaigns for Congress in Northern Nevada. Her campaign says she is running to focus on affordability, health care, safer communities and immigration reform, while her legislative record is receiving renewed scrutiny during the general-election campaign. 

The 2015 vote also illustrates how long the political battle over sex, gender identity and school policy has been simmering in Nevada. Years before transgender bathroom policies became a dominant national culture-war issue, Benitez-Thompson was already on the Assembly floor arguing that state government should stay out of the question.

Now voters in Nevada’s 2nd District have her answer on tape and in the legislative record.

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