On Monday, a bill advanced in Utah that would charge transgender people with a crime if they use the bathroom of their gender identity. It now goes to the full Utah Senate for final passage.
I have serious doubts about Senator Weiler's sincerity. In 2023, he was the author of a bill forcing schools to out trans kids to their unsupportive parents. That bill passed but is currently being challenged in court.
In 2022, Weiler's district gained a very large chunk of a liberal SLC neighborhood in an attempt to erase the political power of that district. That liberal neighborhood is very politically active and I suspect that he fears they bit off more than they meant to and that Weiler knows his fellow republicans will pass this bill even if he pretends to speak out. I don't trust that he is doing anything but trying to cast a meaningless vote that he can hide behind and hopefully salvage his Senate seat in this year's election. Anytime you can throw a Republican out of office, DO IT. Nothing I have ever seen suggests they can be trusted.
Yup. They've made lying & subverting new art forms. SMFH
I trust nobody, not even "liberals". See anybody but legal institutions going after these people? I don't. Just talk, talk, talk where nobody can see who anybody is. No action. BTW, I am known by the politicians in my state, but I'm not of the "moral" majority anywhere.
What a chaotic mess. You'd think police would have better stuff to do than be bathroom gestapo 24/7, inspecting everyone's genitals. The thing that constantly amazes me is the obstinance around spillover effects. "Sorry ma'am, you are a bit too tall and were suspected of being a man." Cis people tend to not enjoy being misgendered either. Practically every one of these ridiculously cruel laws involves something like that and they just don't care. It even works better so they can have a better claim in court that it's "not discrimination". Hate trumps any other consideration for these lunatics.
Sometimes the cruelest pieces of legislation are also the most patently ridiculous. So if I’m understanding correctly, a post-op trans person could use the correct bathroom but they would need to carry around their birth certificate and proof of their SRS surgery, just to use a public bathroom? That seems completely ridiculous. Also, who and what criteria would be used to determine who gets detained and questioned in bathrooms? Some trans women “pass” better than some cis gender-non-conforming or masculine-appearing women, Naturally, the latter group could escape trouble by showing their birth certificates or submitting to a physical exam, but once they’ve been stopped, it’s sort of too late….the humiliation part has already occurred. So these anti-trans laws ultimately degrade and demean all woman, whether cis or trans.
Unfortunately, I expect this bill will ultimately pass. In the unlikely event of a governor’s veto, it will probably just get overridden. The only solution is to challenge it in court. I hope Utah advocacy organizations are taking note, and preparing now for that fight. Ultimately, what a waste of Utah taxpayer’s money, In the meantime, sadly, it sounds like post-op trans people are going to have to dig into their files for their proof of SRS surgery if they want to transit the state with maximum peace of mind.
One other glimmer of hope is that maybe, due to the enforcement difficulties and the obviously cruel and nonsensical nature of this, confrontations and arrests will be rare to nonexistent once it actually goes into effect
Equality Utah and the ACLU have been fighting every anti-trans bills over the last three years. As a resident of SLC I say boycott all events, parks and resorts in Utah and take away Federal funds used in public building where this law is in effect. If necessary, shut down the hospitals and universities for a month or two. Everyone needs to feel the pain of this.
IMHO boycotts are what are going to end this crap all over the country. Cruel states completely losing business and tourism is the way to swiftly get their minds out of the gutters and onto something else.
I think the same exact thing. The number of companies and events that boycotted North Carolina after their ridiculous bathroom ban a few years back was the only reason that law was overturned. What's as frightening as it is disappointing is that I don't see anything similar happening now in Florida and other anti-trans states these days. I feel like we've been abandoned. It's beyond upsetting.
Yes it is upsetting! What I notice though is that for the most part those of us who follow Erin know what's going on but I rarely see anything about these bills in the "news." If there were a way to truly mobilize folks to not spend money in the cruel states, this would end because "money talks." I honestly think that the majority of Americans don't ever even see these fights; they really don't get a lot of press. This country is too big. I'll know in 10 months whether it's even worth living here anymore. Sending peace your way. We gotta hang in here.
Thank you, same to you, and I totally agree. There's absolutely nothing on the major news outlets about any of this (except those outlets that vilify us), nor will there be because they don't care about us either. I try to amplify voices like Erin's and others, but I don't have much of a reach. Sadly, I think that's all we can do... Well, that and vote, but we saw recently in New Hampshire even Dems abandoned us. I hope for some majorly positive news soon. What we saw in Maine this week is encouraging, so I'm trying to focus on things like that and am grateful I live in PA where things are okay at the moment. I hope those who live in these terrible places are safe.
Pardon me, but this will degrade, demean, and humiliate trans men too. Women will scream bloody murder or silently call the cops, that there's a man with a beard in the women's bathroom. No, these politicians are the perverts if they think for 2 seconds, this won't cause the worst kind of hysteria since white people thought Black people had no business in public bathrooms during slavery & Jim Crow. Might as well say white people only; or rather, cisgender heterosexual people only. To relieve yourself? This is sick.
No way will I go through that state ever again. I won't even lay-over there as I won't walk around with my amended birth certificate & my proof of GCS surgery. Examination? Over my dead body. Best to avoid the blasted place. Fk Utah. If this doesn't sound like Hitler's regime & Jim Crow, I don't know what does. Want to brand us too? SMFH
Oh, and this has already happened at a VA in Florida, so the pohleece will be all too happy to oblige these bastards the way they do Black people who get accused of doing things just because we're Black.
My understanding is that trans men and women will be arrested in either restroom. Since there’s no intent, you can be charged with a felony if someone reports you even if the bathroom matches your birth sex (especially so because your appearance is so incongruous to that particular restroom).
Yes, that's right Miriam. But people seem to be so focused on trans women that they forget trans men even exist. The men's room is different, though, because their etiquette is different in there. They could care less. I would be referring to trans men that take the law seriously and try going back to the ladies bathroom. They will be in for a rude awakening. Men don't belong in the women's restroom. Women don't belong in the men's bathroom. They could get killed in there. Back to pissing on the side of the road. This is all insane.
That’s what I worry about. I am in Missouri and I use the men’s restroom for safety but that may not even work soon. I get a lot of strange looks in the men’s restroom now that my hair is so long and I have boobs.
I say, in states that pass these ridiculous laws, all of us cis-gender people start using bathrooms that don’t match our birth certificate, in protest. 😡
I don't think anyone would honestly care who uses the men's bathroom. This bill and all the ones like it is aimed squarely at trans women (even though de jure it would of course affect trans men as well). It's the patriarchy striking again to "protect" (cis, traditionally feminine) women by infantilizing them and painting them as defenseless against nebulous trans predators.
I was born in Utah. I learned to drive in Utah. I went to school in Utah. Every vacation my family ever went on was somewhere in Utah. I got married in Utah. My children were born in Utah. My grandparents are buried in Utah.
When this law passes, I'll never be able to safely go back. It's gutting.
So, if this bill goes into effect, shouldn’t we recruit people to go to many places, like the Utah legislative buildings, the airport, etc, and accuse everyone of not being the sex of the bathroom they are using? Make tens of thousands of accusations in a day and completely overwhelm the system? Make everyone need to show their genitalia to not be thrown in jail. Make sure every legislator who votes for this bill is accused multiple times. I assume there isn’t a specific penalty for making a false accusation. Basically do the real life equivalent of an internet denial of service attack. Make thousands and thousands of accusations. Most cis people don’t carry their birth certificate so they’d all be arrested and sentenced or brought in to court.
My guess is that the multiple false report language was inserted as a bone to Equality Utah pleading with the authors about the real possibility the law is going to be abused.
Ok, then what if there was a signup sheet and a couple thousand of us each once reported a Utah Repub lawmaker as suspiciously using the wrong bathroom? Could be fun, at least.
FYI - sounds fun but there is currently a provision against multiple "false reports" or inducing, aiding abetting a third party in making a false report. Bottom line, you get one free bite but more than once of involving someone else is the same penalty - class B misdemeanor.
They are going to get sued into the ground. And a good thing too. The only way red states are ever going to behave is to have their economic life blood sucked from them.
For the purposes of this law, would trans people have to have bottom surgery? Is top surgery sufficient for trans men? It's wrong and ridiculous either way, but I am wondering what is considered "sufficient" if anyone knows and can share.
1 surgery is enough for the gender marker change of any ID document. Might not matter, though, if you have to pull your pants down for all to see. SMFH
Totally agree - it’s abhorrent. I just wondered if there were any parameters to this insanity. I also do believe trans women will be disproportionately targeted and harassed, as well as some cis women. I live in the other “do not travel” state. As you know, we have a similar law. I don’t know the incidence of enforcement but like anything it is the chilling effect, the fear, the humiliation, and the human rights violations that are the problem regardless of enforcement.
Yes, I know where you're talking about. There has been an incident at the VA down there. They took a transgender woman out of the bathroom and told her she had to leave. Unbelievable. I hope she didn't have an accident on herself. This is just insane, humiliating, and inhumane. They will get irreparably harmed in the men's room. Seen that before. They want to make the U.S. a dangerous place for all of us to live. Moving at the speed of sound, that snowball is rolling down hill, picking up steam, and getting bigger. Americans must stop them!
Sickening. I cannot believe this is America. I am not trans myself. I have a 21 year old trans son, and I am sad and livid at the same time. We get the double whammy here with DeSatan. I am glad he is out of the presidential election but that doesn't help Florida.
I am a Black man who happens to be trans. Whether they're gunning for me one way, they have been gunning for me covertly/overtly all of my life. So, I have a triple whammy going on. I openly call that clown DeSatan too. Floridans must help Florida. We (organization unrevealed) may be down there to help you people fight that battle. To make it known some trans veterans don't appreciate the bullshit. We don't fear this crazy country as much as civilians do. We served for everybody's freedom to be any kind of asshole you wanna be to us. SMFH
You don’t deserve this. No one does. I’m sorry you are facing so much discrimination. I know a lot of Floridians go are sickened by this and a lot of DeSatan’s policies and hate mongering. So unAmerican. I’m glad to hear there are veterans who are standing up for the human rights of everyone.
If these apes think they are going to keep us out of bathrooms we’ve been using most of our lives they have another thing coming we are way more intelligent then these rejects from the planet of the apes
So.....anyone can be accused of being transgender in the “wrong” bathroom huh? What’s to stop us from accusing them? Wouldn’t they have to submit to their own genitalia exam to prove that they are cis? 🙃
I have serious doubts about Senator Weiler's sincerity. In 2023, he was the author of a bill forcing schools to out trans kids to their unsupportive parents. That bill passed but is currently being challenged in court.
In 2022, Weiler's district gained a very large chunk of a liberal SLC neighborhood in an attempt to erase the political power of that district. That liberal neighborhood is very politically active and I suspect that he fears they bit off more than they meant to and that Weiler knows his fellow republicans will pass this bill even if he pretends to speak out. I don't trust that he is doing anything but trying to cast a meaningless vote that he can hide behind and hopefully salvage his Senate seat in this year's election. Anytime you can throw a Republican out of office, DO IT. Nothing I have ever seen suggests they can be trusted.
Yup. They've made lying & subverting new art forms. SMFH
I trust nobody, not even "liberals". See anybody but legal institutions going after these people? I don't. Just talk, talk, talk where nobody can see who anybody is. No action. BTW, I am known by the politicians in my state, but I'm not of the "moral" majority anywhere.
What a chaotic mess. You'd think police would have better stuff to do than be bathroom gestapo 24/7, inspecting everyone's genitals. The thing that constantly amazes me is the obstinance around spillover effects. "Sorry ma'am, you are a bit too tall and were suspected of being a man." Cis people tend to not enjoy being misgendered either. Practically every one of these ridiculously cruel laws involves something like that and they just don't care. It even works better so they can have a better claim in court that it's "not discrimination". Hate trumps any other consideration for these lunatics.
Sometimes the cruelest pieces of legislation are also the most patently ridiculous. So if I’m understanding correctly, a post-op trans person could use the correct bathroom but they would need to carry around their birth certificate and proof of their SRS surgery, just to use a public bathroom? That seems completely ridiculous. Also, who and what criteria would be used to determine who gets detained and questioned in bathrooms? Some trans women “pass” better than some cis gender-non-conforming or masculine-appearing women, Naturally, the latter group could escape trouble by showing their birth certificates or submitting to a physical exam, but once they’ve been stopped, it’s sort of too late….the humiliation part has already occurred. So these anti-trans laws ultimately degrade and demean all woman, whether cis or trans.
Unfortunately, I expect this bill will ultimately pass. In the unlikely event of a governor’s veto, it will probably just get overridden. The only solution is to challenge it in court. I hope Utah advocacy organizations are taking note, and preparing now for that fight. Ultimately, what a waste of Utah taxpayer’s money, In the meantime, sadly, it sounds like post-op trans people are going to have to dig into their files for their proof of SRS surgery if they want to transit the state with maximum peace of mind.
One other glimmer of hope is that maybe, due to the enforcement difficulties and the obviously cruel and nonsensical nature of this, confrontations and arrests will be rare to nonexistent once it actually goes into effect
Equality Utah and the ACLU have been fighting every anti-trans bills over the last three years. As a resident of SLC I say boycott all events, parks and resorts in Utah and take away Federal funds used in public building where this law is in effect. If necessary, shut down the hospitals and universities for a month or two. Everyone needs to feel the pain of this.
IMHO boycotts are what are going to end this crap all over the country. Cruel states completely losing business and tourism is the way to swiftly get their minds out of the gutters and onto something else.
I think the same exact thing. The number of companies and events that boycotted North Carolina after their ridiculous bathroom ban a few years back was the only reason that law was overturned. What's as frightening as it is disappointing is that I don't see anything similar happening now in Florida and other anti-trans states these days. I feel like we've been abandoned. It's beyond upsetting.
Yes it is upsetting! What I notice though is that for the most part those of us who follow Erin know what's going on but I rarely see anything about these bills in the "news." If there were a way to truly mobilize folks to not spend money in the cruel states, this would end because "money talks." I honestly think that the majority of Americans don't ever even see these fights; they really don't get a lot of press. This country is too big. I'll know in 10 months whether it's even worth living here anymore. Sending peace your way. We gotta hang in here.
Thank you, same to you, and I totally agree. There's absolutely nothing on the major news outlets about any of this (except those outlets that vilify us), nor will there be because they don't care about us either. I try to amplify voices like Erin's and others, but I don't have much of a reach. Sadly, I think that's all we can do... Well, that and vote, but we saw recently in New Hampshire even Dems abandoned us. I hope for some majorly positive news soon. What we saw in Maine this week is encouraging, so I'm trying to focus on things like that and am grateful I live in PA where things are okay at the moment. I hope those who live in these terrible places are safe.
Pardon me, but this will degrade, demean, and humiliate trans men too. Women will scream bloody murder or silently call the cops, that there's a man with a beard in the women's bathroom. No, these politicians are the perverts if they think for 2 seconds, this won't cause the worst kind of hysteria since white people thought Black people had no business in public bathrooms during slavery & Jim Crow. Might as well say white people only; or rather, cisgender heterosexual people only. To relieve yourself? This is sick.
No way will I go through that state ever again. I won't even lay-over there as I won't walk around with my amended birth certificate & my proof of GCS surgery. Examination? Over my dead body. Best to avoid the blasted place. Fk Utah. If this doesn't sound like Hitler's regime & Jim Crow, I don't know what does. Want to brand us too? SMFH
Oh, and this has already happened at a VA in Florida, so the pohleece will be all too happy to oblige these bastards the way they do Black people who get accused of doing things just because we're Black.
My understanding is that trans men and women will be arrested in either restroom. Since there’s no intent, you can be charged with a felony if someone reports you even if the bathroom matches your birth sex (especially so because your appearance is so incongruous to that particular restroom).
Yes, that's right Miriam. But people seem to be so focused on trans women that they forget trans men even exist. The men's room is different, though, because their etiquette is different in there. They could care less. I would be referring to trans men that take the law seriously and try going back to the ladies bathroom. They will be in for a rude awakening. Men don't belong in the women's restroom. Women don't belong in the men's bathroom. They could get killed in there. Back to pissing on the side of the road. This is all insane.
That’s what I worry about. I am in Missouri and I use the men’s restroom for safety but that may not even work soon. I get a lot of strange looks in the men’s restroom now that my hair is so long and I have boobs.
I say, in states that pass these ridiculous laws, all of us cis-gender people start using bathrooms that don’t match our birth certificate, in protest. 😡
I don't think anyone would honestly care who uses the men's bathroom. This bill and all the ones like it is aimed squarely at trans women (even though de jure it would of course affect trans men as well). It's the patriarchy striking again to "protect" (cis, traditionally feminine) women by infantilizing them and painting them as defenseless against nebulous trans predators.
Yes - you’re right. I was just brainstorming some kind of civil disobedience out of frustration!
I very much appreciate your frustration and desire to help. Thank you, sincerely.
Just like misgendering helps them "get it" when done matter-of-factly. Good one!
I was born in Utah. I learned to drive in Utah. I went to school in Utah. Every vacation my family ever went on was somewhere in Utah. I got married in Utah. My children were born in Utah. My grandparents are buried in Utah.
When this law passes, I'll never be able to safely go back. It's gutting.
So, if this bill goes into effect, shouldn’t we recruit people to go to many places, like the Utah legislative buildings, the airport, etc, and accuse everyone of not being the sex of the bathroom they are using? Make tens of thousands of accusations in a day and completely overwhelm the system? Make everyone need to show their genitalia to not be thrown in jail. Make sure every legislator who votes for this bill is accused multiple times. I assume there isn’t a specific penalty for making a false accusation. Basically do the real life equivalent of an internet denial of service attack. Make thousands and thousands of accusations. Most cis people don’t carry their birth certificate so they’d all be arrested and sentenced or brought in to court.
Great idea!
My guess is that the multiple false report language was inserted as a bone to Equality Utah pleading with the authors about the real possibility the law is going to be abused.
Ok, then what if there was a signup sheet and a couple thousand of us each once reported a Utah Repub lawmaker as suspiciously using the wrong bathroom? Could be fun, at least.
FYI - sounds fun but there is currently a provision against multiple "false reports" or inducing, aiding abetting a third party in making a false report. Bottom line, you get one free bite but more than once of involving someone else is the same penalty - class B misdemeanor.
Erin is nominated for a GLAAD Media Award!!!
Outstanding Blog
Charlotte’s Web Thoughts
Erin in the Morning
Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
LawDork
Mombian
Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents
The Queer Review
The Randy Report
The Reckoning
The Rot Spot
They are going to get sued into the ground. And a good thing too. The only way red states are ever going to behave is to have their economic life blood sucked from them.
It's going to pass.
Sadly, I agree.
Slavery, Jim Crow, Hitler, Gay rights. Good job, Utah & fk you! You've got MY boycott. Never been to/thru that state and never plan on it.
For the purposes of this law, would trans people have to have bottom surgery? Is top surgery sufficient for trans men? It's wrong and ridiculous either way, but I am wondering what is considered "sufficient" if anyone knows and can share.
1 surgery is enough for the gender marker change of any ID document. Might not matter, though, if you have to pull your pants down for all to see. SMFH
Totally agree - it’s abhorrent. I just wondered if there were any parameters to this insanity. I also do believe trans women will be disproportionately targeted and harassed, as well as some cis women. I live in the other “do not travel” state. As you know, we have a similar law. I don’t know the incidence of enforcement but like anything it is the chilling effect, the fear, the humiliation, and the human rights violations that are the problem regardless of enforcement.
Yes, I know where you're talking about. There has been an incident at the VA down there. They took a transgender woman out of the bathroom and told her she had to leave. Unbelievable. I hope she didn't have an accident on herself. This is just insane, humiliating, and inhumane. They will get irreparably harmed in the men's room. Seen that before. They want to make the U.S. a dangerous place for all of us to live. Moving at the speed of sound, that snowball is rolling down hill, picking up steam, and getting bigger. Americans must stop them!
Sickening. I cannot believe this is America. I am not trans myself. I have a 21 year old trans son, and I am sad and livid at the same time. We get the double whammy here with DeSatan. I am glad he is out of the presidential election but that doesn't help Florida.
I am a Black man who happens to be trans. Whether they're gunning for me one way, they have been gunning for me covertly/overtly all of my life. So, I have a triple whammy going on. I openly call that clown DeSatan too. Floridans must help Florida. We (organization unrevealed) may be down there to help you people fight that battle. To make it known some trans veterans don't appreciate the bullshit. We don't fear this crazy country as much as civilians do. We served for everybody's freedom to be any kind of asshole you wanna be to us. SMFH
You don’t deserve this. No one does. I’m sorry you are facing so much discrimination. I know a lot of Floridians go are sickened by this and a lot of DeSatan’s policies and hate mongering. So unAmerican. I’m glad to hear there are veterans who are standing up for the human rights of everyone.
If these apes think they are going to keep us out of bathrooms we’ve been using most of our lives they have another thing coming we are way more intelligent then these rejects from the planet of the apes
So.....anyone can be accused of being transgender in the “wrong” bathroom huh? What’s to stop us from accusing them? Wouldn’t they have to submit to their own genitalia exam to prove that they are cis? 🙃
Moved away from NH. Happier in MA for now. Nice to know you!