Lawmakers continue attack on trans bathroom use
It seems we didn’t leave the battle of the bathrooms behind us in 2015. This week alone lawmakers in two states, Virginia and Indiana, are seeking to make using the restroom for trans people a lot more difficult.
Let’s start with Indiana, because, believe it or not, its proposed laws are a little less embarrassing and radical. A new bill has just been introduced by lawmakers in the Hoosier State that seeks to fine trans people $5000 for going to the “wrong” bathroom.
To clarify, if a trans woman used a women’s restroom, it would be considered the “wrong” bathroom.
The “Single-sex facilities Act of 2016,” which was filed this week by Republican Senator Jim Tomes, hopes to put a ban on all non gender specific public restrooms in the entire state of Indiana. Only restrooms designated “men” or “women” will be permitted by law. “Unisex” any other restrooms will be illegal.
The bill adds: “Student facilities in school buildings must be designated for use by female students or male students, and may be used only by the students of the biological gender for which the facility is designated.”
The bill even taps into middle school biology to make sure that people understand the bill.
‘female’ shall be defined as having ‘at least one X chromosome and no Y chromosome’, and ‘male’ as having ‘at least one X chromosome and at least one Y chromosome’
If a trans person purposefully enter the bathroom they identify with then it would be classified as a Class A misdemeanor, and will be fined $5,000 dollars or face up to one year in jail.
Of course, we were shaking our heads at the ridiculous bill. But not long after, Virginia came out with a bill that makes Indiana’s look meek.
House Bill 663 was filed with the Virginia state legislature earlier this week by Republican Del. Mark Cole. The bill seeks to prohibit elementary and high school students who identify as trans from using the restrooms or locker rooms that don’t match their “anatomical sex.” This means that the kid would be identified by his or her sex organs, and we’ve seen this before.
Those that break this law, will be fined $50, which is nothing compared to the thousands they may have to pay in Indiana. But, with that comes the invasive task of checking all of the students private parts, and this is new.
“This is what the conservative movement has devolved into,”LGBTQ rights activist Tim Peacock wrote in a blog post published Tuesday, “forcing children to allow adults to examine their genitals out of misplaced fear that transgender kids and adults might commit a hypothetical never-before-seen act of violence or sexual aggression (that would still be against the law with or without transgender protections).”
Cole took to twitter to squash that accusation, saying that bill would be enforced by complaints. So if a “man” was in a women’s restroom, and a woman complained the “man” would be fined.
“A woman would report a man using the facility and a summons could be issued if warranted,” Cole tweeted.
Oh, okay. But, how exactly would you prove that? You’d have to look at that child’s genitalia.
