Tallahassee, Florida - The Florida State Board of Education issued new rules on Wednesday increasing penalties for transgender college students, faculty, and staff who use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identities.

Florida is upping its punishments for trans people at Florida's 28 state and community colleges with a new proposal adopted on Wednesday by the board appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis.

With the new rules, Florida colleges must add that bathrooms and changing rooms are "designated for exclusive use by males or females" to their codes of conduct. They must also indicate whether they have a unisex bathroom, though they are not required to offer one.

If trans college employees use facilities that correspond with their gender identity, they could get verbal and written warnings, be suspended without pay, and possibly even fired.

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If an employee violates the restrictions more than once, they must be terminated.

The new penalties also extend to student dorms, meaning that trans students without unisex facilities in their residence halls must leave the dorm to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity.

The leveling of new punishments follows Florida Republicans' passage of a law this year to criminalize the use of public restrooms that don't correspond with sex assigned at birth.

Critics of the harsh restrictions have accused Florida officials of trying to effectively eliminate transgender and non-binary people from college campuses.