Only ten states ban transgender people from bathrooms. While most bans focus on K-12 schools, three states go beyond that and target adults in other places. Ohio may become the fourth if HB183 passes.
This is such a non-issue. Trans people are not posing any threat to cis people in bathrooms, period. If anyone, trans or cis, does start behaving inappropriately or sexually assaults someone in a bathroom, we already have laws to deal with that.
All this effectively does is create a climate where trans people are afraid to go out in public as themselves and where transphobes feel empowered to bathroom-police anyone who "looks trans".
The same people who talk about "beta males" and whatnot are afraid of a penis in a ladies' room. As if that, in the limited circumstance of a trans woman using a toilet, matters. Interesting stuff, really.
This fear of "penises in the ladies room" gets even more ridiculous when, according to the law, trans men who have been on testorone their entire lives, have had their legal gender corrected, and have a penis after receiving bottom surgery, still belong in the ladies room because of an "F" on their original birth certificate.
These people never take into account that bottom surgery and trans men exist.
The cowardice of making this such a seemingly important issue, by the right, is not lost on me. We had a functioning and working standard, a model, why would it depend which state in the country one is standing in? Are gender-specific spaces not supposed to be about facilitating safe and comfortable situations? If there aren't ways to cope with this, we aren't using our brains, but luckily we don't even need to - we know how to deal with this, by letting non-cis people use their own judgment.
Actual sexual predators aren't going to give a shit about a minor law like that in the attempt of an actual crime. Bathrooms don't have forcefields!
As a disabled woman, I've *absolutely* used men's restrooms during emergencies. So has my mother! When I go visit my family in Ohio and on the off chance I end up somewhere with a long line for women's restrooms will I have to be like "huh, possible arrest or pee on the floor?" What about pregnant people or other people with bladder problems? Bathroom bans have no benefits for anyone, it's obviously about discriminating against trans people.
If it's not about trans people then they should write that exception into the bill. Seems simple enough. They have no problem writing exceptions for Christians into every piece of civil rights legislation, every chance they get.
None of this shit is going to stop or slow down until we tax churches and the political orgs they operate as non-profit business, charities and thinktanks to engage in politics. They wield far too much political power utilizing their tax free status and income. There's a reason there's a church on every corner in the country and it's not because of demand, it's a money making opportunity.
I'm bewildered at how these folks fetishize birth certificates. In 1959 mine was probably a typewriter-generated piece, maybe on fancy embossed paper with a raised seal at the bottom. That piece of paper has not existed in decades.
But first, at age 10, my Brady-Bunch family enrolled me in a new school under my stepdad's name. My BC was certainly provided, showing me to be a Steven Mohn along with relevant vax records. I progressed through multiple school districts to graduation as a Steven Boese. There was never a demand that I adhere to the BC; the diploma named me as Boese and I got into college as a Boese. (The IRS flagged a couple tax returns for the SSN being assigned to a Mohn instead of a Boese, but that was easily resolved.)
At 21, in Iowa, I hired an attorney and appeared before a judge to assert that Boese is my name and it ought to be reflected on my legal documents. The attorney guided me on how to file the resulting court order with the state of Minnesota and the Social Security Administration.
In the couple of times I've requested an official paper copy of the BC from Minnesota, it's never come back as an image of the typewriter-generated piece of paper from 1959. It includes no asterisks or footnotes mentioning the name Mohn or the genesis or justification for the change.
So, I have lived with a reality in which birth certificates are not etched in stone, they are living, breathing documents. Carefully tended, to be sure, not easily amended.
And, if pressed to produce a piece of paper from 1959 showing that I was AMAB, that is not an option. Even if it was, it would show me as a Mohn, requiring me to add the court order showing the name change.
The Ohio requirement grounded on the BC at or close to the time of birth is a privileged fantasy that we all have grown up in nicely organized families with all documents safely stored away, to be produced on demand. The people proposing "papers, please" restroom entry criteria seem to be seeking the outing of any non-conforming kid or adult's life history.
Simple hate and ignorance from the same people who brought racially segregated bathrooms in our past. This has been a non-issue for years until the far right conservative Republicans decided to seize cultural issues like this and abortion in order to fire up their equally ignorant base and try to influence those who don't know that these are lies, all in order to maintain power and money. Their interest in protecting children or women's sports is nil given their refusal to deal with gun violence or unequal pay issues for women in sports.
This is one of the core issues people are dealing with, spaces designated by gender. The guidelines many schools had implemented, where individuals have discretion, is the only feasible answer, but phobes are rigid on the idea of keeping biological sex the determining characteristic, even when this creates deadly scenarios. I would want to work toward a society where this wasn't so difficult to resolve, because it shouldn't be - Pres. Obama did a lot, in his capacity, to illustrate the way to handle this, but a lot has changed, since those days.
As I watched the recorded video of one of the hearings on their filthy legislation, State Rep. Click actually said, "There's no Anti-Trans Legislation". These fascists are playing by every dictator's playbook. Using lies, misinformation, false science, continuous repetition of the SAME lies over and over, to confuse and break down any resistance. They have definititely underestimated the resistance in this case. Same as the Holocaust, same as Jim Crow. It was never about water fountains, nor control over commerce. Just hate, fear and willfull ignorance. Don't back down from these tyrants. They've never opened a biology book written after 1897. Keep speaking truth, science and the history of Trans Folks to combat their bigotry. Get up in their grilles every day!
I felt somewhat safe here in Washington state. I don't use public bathrooms as a general rule due to other reasons than being trans, so I do tend to skirt that policy. However, due to circumstances beyond my control, my daughter, who is trans, and myself, also trans, may have to move to Ohio. Living in King County Washington is impossible while on Social Security disability and our only option may be Ohio where my daughter has a friend with a house. For many reasons, this move terrifies me.
I just want to fucking pee.
This is such a non-issue. Trans people are not posing any threat to cis people in bathrooms, period. If anyone, trans or cis, does start behaving inappropriately or sexually assaults someone in a bathroom, we already have laws to deal with that.
All this effectively does is create a climate where trans people are afraid to go out in public as themselves and where transphobes feel empowered to bathroom-police anyone who "looks trans".
The same people who talk about "beta males" and whatnot are afraid of a penis in a ladies' room. As if that, in the limited circumstance of a trans woman using a toilet, matters. Interesting stuff, really.
This fear of "penises in the ladies room" gets even more ridiculous when, according to the law, trans men who have been on testorone their entire lives, have had their legal gender corrected, and have a penis after receiving bottom surgery, still belong in the ladies room because of an "F" on their original birth certificate.
These people never take into account that bottom surgery and trans men exist.
The cowardice of making this such a seemingly important issue, by the right, is not lost on me. We had a functioning and working standard, a model, why would it depend which state in the country one is standing in? Are gender-specific spaces not supposed to be about facilitating safe and comfortable situations? If there aren't ways to cope with this, we aren't using our brains, but luckily we don't even need to - we know how to deal with this, by letting non-cis people use their own judgment.
Actual sexual predators aren't going to give a shit about a minor law like that in the attempt of an actual crime. Bathrooms don't have forcefields!
As a disabled woman, I've *absolutely* used men's restrooms during emergencies. So has my mother! When I go visit my family in Ohio and on the off chance I end up somewhere with a long line for women's restrooms will I have to be like "huh, possible arrest or pee on the floor?" What about pregnant people or other people with bladder problems? Bathroom bans have no benefits for anyone, it's obviously about discriminating against trans people.
If it's not about trans people then they should write that exception into the bill. Seems simple enough. They have no problem writing exceptions for Christians into every piece of civil rights legislation, every chance they get.
None of this shit is going to stop or slow down until we tax churches and the political orgs they operate as non-profit business, charities and thinktanks to engage in politics. They wield far too much political power utilizing their tax free status and income. There's a reason there's a church on every corner in the country and it's not because of demand, it's a money making opportunity.
I'm bewildered at how these folks fetishize birth certificates. In 1959 mine was probably a typewriter-generated piece, maybe on fancy embossed paper with a raised seal at the bottom. That piece of paper has not existed in decades.
But first, at age 10, my Brady-Bunch family enrolled me in a new school under my stepdad's name. My BC was certainly provided, showing me to be a Steven Mohn along with relevant vax records. I progressed through multiple school districts to graduation as a Steven Boese. There was never a demand that I adhere to the BC; the diploma named me as Boese and I got into college as a Boese. (The IRS flagged a couple tax returns for the SSN being assigned to a Mohn instead of a Boese, but that was easily resolved.)
At 21, in Iowa, I hired an attorney and appeared before a judge to assert that Boese is my name and it ought to be reflected on my legal documents. The attorney guided me on how to file the resulting court order with the state of Minnesota and the Social Security Administration.
In the couple of times I've requested an official paper copy of the BC from Minnesota, it's never come back as an image of the typewriter-generated piece of paper from 1959. It includes no asterisks or footnotes mentioning the name Mohn or the genesis or justification for the change.
So, I have lived with a reality in which birth certificates are not etched in stone, they are living, breathing documents. Carefully tended, to be sure, not easily amended.
And, if pressed to produce a piece of paper from 1959 showing that I was AMAB, that is not an option. Even if it was, it would show me as a Mohn, requiring me to add the court order showing the name change.
The Ohio requirement grounded on the BC at or close to the time of birth is a privileged fantasy that we all have grown up in nicely organized families with all documents safely stored away, to be produced on demand. The people proposing "papers, please" restroom entry criteria seem to be seeking the outing of any non-conforming kid or adult's life history.
My birth certificate also says I weigh seven pounds, 8 ounces. Things change.
Please sir,
Piss on my leg some more and tell me it's raining 🌧 😒
Simple hate and ignorance from the same people who brought racially segregated bathrooms in our past. This has been a non-issue for years until the far right conservative Republicans decided to seize cultural issues like this and abortion in order to fire up their equally ignorant base and try to influence those who don't know that these are lies, all in order to maintain power and money. Their interest in protecting children or women's sports is nil given their refusal to deal with gun violence or unequal pay issues for women in sports.
This is one of the core issues people are dealing with, spaces designated by gender. The guidelines many schools had implemented, where individuals have discretion, is the only feasible answer, but phobes are rigid on the idea of keeping biological sex the determining characteristic, even when this creates deadly scenarios. I would want to work toward a society where this wasn't so difficult to resolve, because it shouldn't be - Pres. Obama did a lot, in his capacity, to illustrate the way to handle this, but a lot has changed, since those days.
What on earth is it about if it’s not about trans women?! Predators? We already have laws against predators.
Hi, Zoe Jane! Papa Dave loves you!
As I watched the recorded video of one of the hearings on their filthy legislation, State Rep. Click actually said, "There's no Anti-Trans Legislation". These fascists are playing by every dictator's playbook. Using lies, misinformation, false science, continuous repetition of the SAME lies over and over, to confuse and break down any resistance. They have definititely underestimated the resistance in this case. Same as the Holocaust, same as Jim Crow. It was never about water fountains, nor control over commerce. Just hate, fear and willfull ignorance. Don't back down from these tyrants. They've never opened a biology book written after 1897. Keep speaking truth, science and the history of Trans Folks to combat their bigotry. Get up in their grilles every day!
I felt somewhat safe here in Washington state. I don't use public bathrooms as a general rule due to other reasons than being trans, so I do tend to skirt that policy. However, due to circumstances beyond my control, my daughter, who is trans, and myself, also trans, may have to move to Ohio. Living in King County Washington is impossible while on Social Security disability and our only option may be Ohio where my daughter has a friend with a house. For many reasons, this move terrifies me.