Kentucky state Sen. C.B. Embry says he’s not being a bully, he’s just trying to protect some students from being uncomfortable. iStockPhoto 
 
 Kentucky students using sex-segregated bathrooms and locker rooms could win $2,500 if they catch a member of the excluded biological sex there, under proposed legislation. 
 
 The bill intends to crack down on school employees who allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms designated for the opposite biological sex. 
 
 But, as written, the bill authorizes lawsuits not only if school personnel approved of such facility use, but also if they “[f]ailed to take reasonable steps to prohibit the person encountered from using facilities designated for use by the opposite biological sex.” 
 
 Students who sue in state courts, the bill says, would be entitled to $2,500 for each violation and are also eligible for damages for psychological and emotional harm. The offending school would foot the bill, along with all attorney fees. 
 
 
 
 The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Sen. C.B. Embry, tells U.S. News the measure may need modification. He says he wouldn’t want teens to stage incidents to win payouts. 
 
 Embry says he wrote the bill at the request of the Family Foundation of Kentucky, in response to a Louisville, Ky., high school's decision to allow a transgender student to use female facilities. That decision was upheld by an oversight board. 
 
 The bill would require "the best available accommodation" for individual transgender students whose parents or legal guardians request it in writing, including use of single-person or faculty facilities. 
 
 Though Embry says he’s received strident blowback, including "extremely ugly" emails, he says he’s not prejudiced and believes students should be allowed to dress however they like. 
 
 
 
 “They’re certainly welcome to live their lives as they choose, if they want to dress as the opposite sex and the school is OK with that, that’s fine,” he says. 
 
 Embry says while he believes it’s important to keep transgender students from making members of the opposite biological sex uncomfortable, he doesn’t support banning gay and lesbian students from places where peers of the same sex are in a state of undress. 
 
 “I don’t think we can create a situation where no one is ever offended or uncomfortable,” says the state senator, who claims he knows of at least one gay person who supports his effort. 
 
 “I have a friend, and we can all say these things, who is a homosexual and she agrees that she doesn’t want men in her bathroom,” he says. 
 
 
 
 Embry also says he's supportive of anti-bullying laws that protect sexual minorities along with other groups – often a worrying prospect for religious conservatives and some libertarians. 
 
 “I am very much in favor of strong anti-bullying laws that protect students no matter what the reason for bullying may be: fat or short, don't speak plain, sexual orientation, whatever,” he says. In 2012, he opposed a bill that would have required schools to ban bullying based on sexual orientation or gender identity, describing existing laws as sufficient. ||||| State Sen. C.B. Embry, from Butler County, recently introduced the Kentucky Student Privacy Act, which would make transgender students in public schools use the bathrooms which correspond with their sex assigned at birth. 
 
 "I just don't think people of a different biological sex should, children, should be allowed into restrooms who are not the same sex that they are," Embry said. "I think that's very upsetting to a number of students and parents." 
 
 The bill stems from a high school in Louisville that has implemented a policy allowing a transgender student to choose which rooms best fit their self-identity. Embry says many parents then reached out to the Kentucky Family Foundation. 
 
 "They drafted this bill and was seeking a sponsor, and I agreed to sponsor it for them because I agree," Embry added. 
 
 The director of the Kentucky Fairness Campaign in Louisville says this bill would open the bathroom stall doors to Kentucky legislators regulating that activity across the commonwealth. 
 
 "This is an issue of local control. Currently, school districts and school principals across the state handle unique and challenging situations in a way that best fits their learning environment," Hartman said. 
 
 Hartman also suggested this policy would oppose a federal law. 
 
 "More over, it is in direct violation of Title IX, the law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in schools," Hartman added. 
 
 Although the bill has been filed, it has not yet been discussed. 
 
 If the bill does go into law, students who encounter a person of the opposite biological sex in a restroom, locker room, or shower room could recover $2,500 from the school, depending on the specific situation.
– If a proposed measure somehow makes its way into law, students in Kentucky could see a $2,500 reward for finding transgendered people in a bathroom that doesn't match their assigned sex. The bill targets school officials who allow transgendered students to use their preferred bathrooms—as well as officials who don't "take reasonable steps to prohibit the person encountered" from doing so, US News and World Report reports. In such cases, students could sue in state courts and win $2,500, plus more funds for psychological harm inflicted. The bill, sponsored by state senator CB Embry, was apparently spurred by a request from the Family Foundation of Kentucky; that group drafted it, he tells WBKO. The bill would also require "the best available accommodation" for transgendered people who are uncomfortable with single-sex bathrooms. Students, Embry says, are "certainly welcome to live their lives as they choose. If they want to dress as the opposite sex and the school is OK with that, that’s fine," he notes. The bill, he says, is aimed at preventing discomfort among other users of the bathrooms. Will it pass? It seems highly unlikely: Embry isn't aware of a single fellow lawmaker who supports the bill. What's more, notes the head of the Kentucky Fairness campaign, the bill "is in direct violation of Title IX, the law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in schools." Embry does, however, point to one person who apparently supports it. "I have a friend, and we can all say these things, who is a homosexual and she agrees that she doesn’t want men in her bathroom."