The first criminal bathroom ban with a jail sentence has just taken effect overnight in Florida. Florida is now dangerous for transgender people to travel through, with arrests likely in coming days.
This is one of the biggest threats to transgender people here. I'm in contact with an attorney who is researching the challenges against this and the possibility of joining in an amicus. Please, if you live in Florida, download an app like Refugee Restroom so that you can find gender-neutral / family restrooms and stay safe.
Erin, I'll keep you posted when and if I can. I'm using any leverage I can as a candidate to research and overturn the mess in Florida. We all thank you for the amazing coverage you have provided.
This all makes me so sick. I look at my sweet kid, and I’m so angry! I actually used to like visiting Florida, and now I don’t know if I could ever go back there again, even if DeSantis is gone and these laws change. It’s so totally messed up! My kid can’t even have a connection in the airport because what happens if she needs to pee! I do hope they lose soooo much business from this!!!!
I own stock in the Italian soccer team Juventus. (Big fan.) Juventus is scheduled to play Real Madrid (biggest club team in the world from Spain) in a "friendly" match in Orlando on August 2nd at Camping World Stadium. Is Camping World Stadium covered by this bill? If so, people should contact Juventus and Real Madrid (two of the biggest soccer teams in the world with hundreds of millions of international fans; Juventus in particular has a well-established record of inclusiveness) and request that the game be moved to New York/New Jersey or some other location that is not hostile to LGBTQ+ rights. These are international organizations not beholden to any chud GOP types who generally can be counted on to hate soccer. But moving the game will be a loss and will punish the Florida bigots who planned to attend.
I read about these, and I think about N*zis. How there were all these individual choices of hatred across that country, and how they added up cumulatively and enabled the larger-scale atrocities to happen. I wonder if people don't realize that their choices matter.
These types of bans are cruel and fraught with difficulties (as Erin reports). Going forward, how enforcement plays out is likely to be unpredictable, but it seems reasonable to imagine that most people in bathrooms just want to get their business done, and aren’t eager to risk accusing a stranger of being trans, when they could be wrong and when it isn’t always possible to tell. So perhaps enforcement will be spotty. For sure, trans people are put in a very difficult situation; many may avoid public bathrooms totally, whereas some “passing” trans people might be tempted to use the bathroom they have always used, reasoning that if they use the opposite one where they don’t “pass”, they could be immediately accused and detained (even if later they could prove their birth gender assignment). If I’m understanding the law correctly, no crime is committed unless 1) a trans person enters a bathroom, 2) they are accused of being trans and told to leave, and 3) they don’t leave - correct?
For those folks visiting Erin's web portal, I am Canadian, and the entire legal "mess" in the state of Florida is a matter I wish to use to educate myself. Do any of my new friends on this portal want to suggest good, clarifying, SIMPLE language, online sources to explain the U.S. laws? Thank you. Additionally, I am interested in the process how and what methods U.S. citizens legally use to counter, and reverse draconian laws. Thanks again. In the meantime, please stay as safe, and healthy as possible. I am sending lots, and lots of Love to Everyone. Thank you, again, Erin & Co.
Given that I’m not entirely sure what the TOS for substack entails, I cannot fully express my thoughts on this matter except to say “mixed magazines make for peaceful pooping.” Florida is a stand your ground state with constitutional concealed carry, for what that is worth for the community.
Personally I’m glad to be on the absolute furthest point from there in the contiguous US and there’s no way in hell I’ll ever go there again. I do feel nothing but sorrow and worry for our trans family who lives there though.
I'm a straight cis-woman. I'm not scared of sharing a bathroom with transwomen or even transmen (though that is a bit awkward). I AM super-terrified of having to prove my birth certificate gender (who carries a birth certificate?) or having to share a bathroom with a straight cis man predator who's claiming to be trans just because he can and he's up to no good...but he can totally say, "No, really, I was born female, I should be here," and how is anyone supposed to know him from a transman who's just trying to comply? Ugh. Laws like this empower bigots, trolls and rapists.
This is one of the biggest threats to transgender people here. I'm in contact with an attorney who is researching the challenges against this and the possibility of joining in an amicus. Please, if you live in Florida, download an app like Refugee Restroom so that you can find gender-neutral / family restrooms and stay safe.
Erin, I'll keep you posted when and if I can. I'm using any leverage I can as a candidate to research and overturn the mess in Florida. We all thank you for the amazing coverage you have provided.
This all makes me so sick. I look at my sweet kid, and I’m so angry! I actually used to like visiting Florida, and now I don’t know if I could ever go back there again, even if DeSantis is gone and these laws change. It’s so totally messed up! My kid can’t even have a connection in the airport because what happens if she needs to pee! I do hope they lose soooo much business from this!!!!
Disgusting bill written and passed by some of the poorest examples of humanity
Don’t go to Florida for any reason. This is a disgrace.
I own stock in the Italian soccer team Juventus. (Big fan.) Juventus is scheduled to play Real Madrid (biggest club team in the world from Spain) in a "friendly" match in Orlando on August 2nd at Camping World Stadium. Is Camping World Stadium covered by this bill? If so, people should contact Juventus and Real Madrid (two of the biggest soccer teams in the world with hundreds of millions of international fans; Juventus in particular has a well-established record of inclusiveness) and request that the game be moved to New York/New Jersey or some other location that is not hostile to LGBTQ+ rights. These are international organizations not beholden to any chud GOP types who generally can be counted on to hate soccer. But moving the game will be a loss and will punish the Florida bigots who planned to attend.
I've got family in Florida, and they're acting like I'm crazy because I refuse to visit them.
I read about these, and I think about N*zis. How there were all these individual choices of hatred across that country, and how they added up cumulatively and enabled the larger-scale atrocities to happen. I wonder if people don't realize that their choices matter.
These types of bans are cruel and fraught with difficulties (as Erin reports). Going forward, how enforcement plays out is likely to be unpredictable, but it seems reasonable to imagine that most people in bathrooms just want to get their business done, and aren’t eager to risk accusing a stranger of being trans, when they could be wrong and when it isn’t always possible to tell. So perhaps enforcement will be spotty. For sure, trans people are put in a very difficult situation; many may avoid public bathrooms totally, whereas some “passing” trans people might be tempted to use the bathroom they have always used, reasoning that if they use the opposite one where they don’t “pass”, they could be immediately accused and detained (even if later they could prove their birth gender assignment). If I’m understanding the law correctly, no crime is committed unless 1) a trans person enters a bathroom, 2) they are accused of being trans and told to leave, and 3) they don’t leave - correct?
DeSantis is garbage.
For those folks visiting Erin's web portal, I am Canadian, and the entire legal "mess" in the state of Florida is a matter I wish to use to educate myself. Do any of my new friends on this portal want to suggest good, clarifying, SIMPLE language, online sources to explain the U.S. laws? Thank you. Additionally, I am interested in the process how and what methods U.S. citizens legally use to counter, and reverse draconian laws. Thanks again. In the meantime, please stay as safe, and healthy as possible. I am sending lots, and lots of Love to Everyone. Thank you, again, Erin & Co.
Given that I’m not entirely sure what the TOS for substack entails, I cannot fully express my thoughts on this matter except to say “mixed magazines make for peaceful pooping.” Florida is a stand your ground state with constitutional concealed carry, for what that is worth for the community.
Personally I’m glad to be on the absolute furthest point from there in the contiguous US and there’s no way in hell I’ll ever go there again. I do feel nothing but sorrow and worry for our trans family who lives there though.
I'm a straight cis-woman. I'm not scared of sharing a bathroom with transwomen or even transmen (though that is a bit awkward). I AM super-terrified of having to prove my birth certificate gender (who carries a birth certificate?) or having to share a bathroom with a straight cis man predator who's claiming to be trans just because he can and he's up to no good...but he can totally say, "No, really, I was born female, I should be here," and how is anyone supposed to know him from a transman who's just trying to comply? Ugh. Laws like this empower bigots, trolls and rapists.
How might we organize a massive non-violent state-wide protest by using opposite-sex public restrooms?
Wondering how this would work for non gendered restrooms?