Initiative to regulate bathrooms likely to appear on ballot

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A new rule on sex, gender, and bathrooms looks likely to go before Anchorage voters next spring.

Alaska Public Media reports (https://bit.ly/2tpnCBP ) a release by the Alaska Family Action Council states supporters submitted nearly 8,500 signatures Thursday to the municipal Clerk’s Office, backing a measure that seeks to regulate bathrooms, locker rooms and other “intimate spaces” on the basis of biological sex rather than gender identity.

The initiative needs 5,754 signatures from qualified Anchorage voters to appear on the city-wide ballot in April.

If it passes, the proposition would require municipal bathrooms to designate use by a person’s biological sex as defined on a birth certificate, and delete current language in city code that lets a person use facilities consistent with gender identity.