North Dakota Gov. Burgum signed HB 1473, restricting transgender people from restrooms and showers in state prisons and college dormitories

On April 25, 2023, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum signed House Bill 1473 into law after the Legislative Assembly passed it in final form 78-14 in the House and 42-5 in the Senate. The act created new sections of the North Dakota Century Code (chapters 12-44.1, 12-46, 12-47, and 15-10) governing the use of multi-occupancy restrooms and shower rooms in state-controlled facilities.

Sections 1 through 3 require that any restroom or shower room accessible by multiple inmates at the same time in a correctional facility, the North Dakota youth correctional center, and the state penitentiary be designated for exclusive use by one sex, and that a facility so designated may be used only by members of that sex. Section 4 imposes the same one-sex designation on restrooms and shower rooms in dormitories and living facilities controlled by institutions under the state board of higher education—the state's public colleges and universities. In each case the enacted text permits a "reasonable accommodation" for a transgender or gender-nonconforming person only as deemed appropriate by an administrator, warden, or director of residence life, leaving access to staff discretion rather than establishing it as a right.

The measure barred transgender inmates and college students from using communal restrooms and showers consistent with their gender identity. The ACLU of North Dakota, which opposed the bill, said it singled out transgender people and forced them to choose between breaking the law and disclosing private medical information. The Human Rights Campaign, which described HB 1473 as one of a series of anti-LGBTQ measures Burgum signed in 2023, said the law would invite harassment and violence against transgender North Dakotans. The enacted act is limited to restroom and shower designation in corrections facilities and higher-education dormitories; it contains no K-12, athletics, or general cell-placement provisions.