Indiana may have lost to the Tarheels in the NCAA tournament, but Indiana Republicans are going all out to prove that nobody is as bigoted as they are.

Sen. Jim Tomes introduced SB 35 in January which prohibits schools from ever allowing transgendder students from using restrooms that correspond to their gender identity...but goes much further. The bill legally defines a person's gender as determined as that which is assigned to the person at birth and their chromosomes.

[T]he bill mandates that any transgender person who uses a public sex-specific restroom, locker room, or shower room that matches their gender identity has committed a “single sex public facility trespass,” which it deems a Class A misdemeanor. A Class A misdemeanor is the highest non-felony charge in Indiana, punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000 dollars.

The misdemeanor charge would not apply to a student at a school, a person under the age of 18, or the usage of any private residence facility.

Though his bill erases the validity of transgender and intersex lives by defining individuals according to their chromosomes, Tomes insists his legislation doesn’t target transgender people.

Shouldn’t we also ask about…what about the other sector of society of people that who have all through the decades women been using women’s restrooms and men been using men’s restrooms and kind of like that and kind of expect that level of privacy?

--Tomes

SB 35 has been deemed the "Pay to Pee Bill" by Indiana's transgender community.

Although the bill is aimed at protecting individuals who are not transgender, it discriminates against transgender students in schools and other transgender individuals who choose to use a restroom that matches his or her gender identity and visual appearance, raising the possibility that he or she may have to pay to pee, which is a hefty price to pay to empty his or her bladder.

“Sec. 2. As used in this section, ‘female’ means an individual
32 who:
33 (1) was born female at birth; or
34 (2) has at least one (1) X chromosome and no Y chromosome.
35 Sec. 3. As used in this section, ‘male’ means an individual who:
36 (1) was born male at birth; or
37 (2) has at least one (1) X chromosome and at least one (1) Y
38 chromosome.”