4/4/2025 Update: These two bills have not yet been voted on by the Senate Education Committee. We suspect they may now be voted on sometime between this Monday and Wednesday. Please contact the committee members now if you haven’t already done so earlier. Email them over the weekend if needed.
3/25/2025: Yesterday was a busy day at the capitol. I was honored to testify on your behalf on two important bills before the Senate Education Committee. The first concerns penalties for schools that do not do their best to ensure the privacy of our girls in school restrooms and shower rooms, and the second concerns gender being defined as one’s sex within all government relations.
It appears to have become this committee’s pattern to vote on bills two days after they are heard. Therefore, if their pattern holds, these two bills may be voted on as early as TOMORROW – Wednesday, March 26.
1.“Bathroom Bill” HB 1144: In 2023, a law was passed that requires restrooms and shower rooms on school grounds to be designed exclusively for males or females. However, some school districts are not in compliance with the law. Not only are new school additions being built without separate bathroom facilities as required by law, but school administrators have publicly announced that their district will not comply with the law.
HB 1144 is necessary because it imposes a penalty on school districts that fail to designate restrooms and shower rooms on school grounds exclusively for males or females. Women and girls have valid concerns about privacy and safety in intimate spaces; forcing underage girls to share bathrooms and shower rooms with boys is wrong and creates an unsafe school climate for all students.
Watch (10:42.25 mark) or read the testimony presented.
2.”Gender defined as Biological Sex,” HB 1181, is a very simple bill that defines an individual’s gender as the individual’s sex. The definition would be applied to all state laws and policies, forms and materials of state agencies, institutions of higher education, and public schools that receive state funds.
Watch (9:26:35 mark) or read the testimony presented.
Take Action: Please send two (2) separate email messages to the Senate Education Committee members. See the easy contact method at the bottom of this e-alert.
1. Ask those on the Senate Education Committee to vote a “Do Pass” on HB 1144.
Write your own message or use this example of a simple email message.
Subject Line: Vote “Do Pass” on HB 1144 – require schools to provide separate restrooms and shower rooms.
Dear Senator,
Vote to support healthy school environments for our children and make sure school districts provide separate restrooms and shower rooms for male and female students. I am being updated by Concerned Women for America of North Dakota.
Sincerely,
Your Name, Town
2. Ask those on the Senate Education Committee to vote a “Do Pass” on HB 1181.
Write your own message or use this suggested message:
Subject Line: Vote “Do Pass” on HB 1181 – Definition of Gender
Dear Senator,
Defining a person’s gender as the same as the individual’s sex affirms the truth and affirms the dignity of women. I am being updated by Concerned Women for America of North Dakota.
Sincerely,
Your Name, Town
3. Forward this email to family and friends.
Please Pray: Pray for our Senators. May God give them wisdom and confidence to vote in support of ensuring that school districts provide a safe and healthy learning environment where children are given the truth regarding their identity as fearfully and wonderfully made by God.
“I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.” Psalm 139:14
Contact the Senate Education Committee as a group or separately.
Contact them as a group (copy and paste into the “To:” field):
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Contact them individually:
Chairman Sen. Todd Beard (R-Dist. 23) at [email protected] (no phone number listed)
Vice Chairman Sen. Randy Lemm (R-Dist. 20) at [email protected] or 701-430-1536
Sen. Michelle Axtman (R-Dist. 7) at [email protected] or 719-351-0654
Sen. Josh Boschee (D-Dist. 44) at [email protected] at 701-367-3513
Sen. Justin Gerhardt (R-Dist. 34) at [email protected] or 701-527-6262
Sen. Mike Wobbema (R-Dist. 24) at [email protected] or 701-595-1579
