Update: AB 375 has been defeated.

On April 10, Nevada’s Assembly Judiciary Committee passed a bill that proposes the segregation of transgender students in public schools into separate bathrooms and locker rooms. It’s now up to the full Assembly to determine if the bill should move forward.

Those who support the bill affirm it is a necessary safety measure against predatory behavior and ‘pretend’ transgender students. Its opponents, however, call it discriminatory and point to the likelihood of increased assaults on these students due to singling them out. What’s more, they say it is illegal under federal law.

Only Democrats voted against Assembly Bill 375. It survived thanks to a committee dominated by Republicans.

Assemblywoman Victoria Dooling, R-Las Vegas, who sponsored the bill, says it’s needed because more and more schools allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their identified genders.

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These students will use this advantage to “gain entrance into bathrooms and locker rooms of the opposite gender to stalk and sexually abuse others," read Dooling from a letter by a Nevada physician, whom she would not name, this according to the Reno Gazette-Journal.

On the other side of the argument was assemblyman James Ohrenschall, D-Las Vegas, who said the bill would "lead to more bullying", as it would identify students who may very well not be known to be transgender.

AB 375 would mandate that locker rooms and bathrooms "only be used by persons of that biological sex" and requires transgender students in public schools to use unisex or faculty bathrooms. The separate restrooms must be "the best available accommodations" that a school can provide.

But the legalities around the bill make its future doubtful.

According to Title IX, sex discrimination is prohibited in schools that receive federal funds. Should the bill pass and be found to violate Title IX, Nevada public schools would “be at risk of losing federal funding, federal lawsuits and investigation by the Equal Opportunity Commission”, the Reno Gazette-Journal cites Vanessa Spinazola, legislative and advocacy director for the ACLU of Nevada, as saying.

The bill is sure to be a subject of continued heated debate before it goes up to the full Assembly.