A battle is brewing in the America over bathrooms. 

For most, using the restroom is pretty straightforward: you see the sign, you know which door to enter. But for some people, the choice between women and men isn't that easy, and using the facilities can become a traumatic experience.

A few years back, California lawmakers approved a bill requiring public K-12 schools to let transgender students choose which restrooms they use based on their gender identity instead of their chromosomes.

Now, South Dakota is considering solidifying rules which would do the opposite.

covers LGBT issues and education for the Associated Press, and explained students would have to use the bathroom based on their sex at birth. The bill was passed last week and now heads to Gov. Dennis Daugaard, who met with some members of the LGBT community on Tuesday.

"One of the interesting things about it is the governor acknowledged, like a lot of people in the country, that they weren't aware that they knew anyone who is transgender," Leff said. "The reports from people who were at that meeting were that he was very open, he was warm, he seemed generally curious, and he said afterwards that it helped him see things through their eyes and understand their perspective." 

According to Leff, Daugaard has until March 1 to veto the bill, sign it, or let it take affect without his signature. 

But if that happens, what impact could this have on California? 

"California's law is quite clear, but I think that we may then have to do a lot more interventions, as we at Lambda Legal do with school administrators, to get them to understand state law and follow state law to understand what state law actually requires," said

, senior council and director of the Law and Policy Project at

, which works for LGBT civil rights. "In places like South Dakota I'm afraid, I mean if the governor does sign it, there's certain to be litigation, and there is a little confusion I think because employment law and on the employment side of things, there's a lot more developed law that discrimination based on identity is a form of sex discrimination. There's been less litigation in the school side of things. The rules should be the same."    

Given the very personal nature of bathrooms, however, Pizer said people should understand that it is the transgender people who are at risk.

"Of course many people feel some discomfort in restrooms and locker rooms, and if we think about what it's like to be a kid, and especially a teenager, people feel awkwardness changing clothes and so forth, and at the same time we talk about personal privacy because we don't go inspecting each other's genitals or bodies in those spaces. You go into a restroom to use the facility to pee, and everybody has to pee."    

To listen to the interviews with Lisa Leff and Jenny Pizer, click on the audio players above.