Bathroom bills and other laws , discussion thread

[ReineD]

1. It creates a registry of transgender individuals.

That’s not going to happen. Even if the GOP tries to pass such measures, they will be struck down in Court.

That said, there is no shame in transitioners carrying ID that reflects their transitioned gender, in fact most of the TSs I have seen have been darn proud when obtaining new ID, and the states that currently require SRS before effecting the changes simply need to modernize their laws and follow CA’s lead.

Back to the bathrooms, we are stuck. It wasn't a problem before it became political and now it is.

It wasn’t a problem for some people, but it has always been a problem for others. Look up the statistics on gay and TG hate crimes (all over the country), plus how many are denied employment, housing, and healthcare. This is why we need protective laws. And hate crimes have happened in bathrooms too.

But if we accept anything short of what it should be, we will never win. Once you give ground like that, it is hard to win it back. So we must push through and win it properly for all identities. And the only way to make that truly happen, is a solution that isn't identity based.

So your solution then, is that everyone who dons a female presentation (and a non-binary presentation too?) should use the women’s bathrooms, even if they don’t identify female? Good luck with that and honestly, this is not what the LGBT legal advocates are fighting for. Did you read the Lambda Legal bathroom FAQ? They are fighting for transwomen to be recognized as, and given the same rights as natal women. If you think that Lambda Legal and other LGBT advocates should expand who they think should use the bathrooms, then you need to contact them and let us know how that goes.

Joking aside, yours is an admirable goal, it really is, but it is an idealistic goal and it will not solve any immediate problems. The immediate issue is to protect the 1.4M TSs, who cannot pick and choose which bathroom to use, from potential harm at the hands of non-believers. And so they need mechanisms in place (laws) to prosecute the non-believers if the non-believers break the law and harm the TSs. This is particularly true in bathrooms where misgendering takes on greater importance (than in the middle of a food court, for example).

I cannot see convincing legislative bodies, courts, and most people in this country especially the staunchly conservative folks, that male-identified individuals who only dress part time should use the women’s bathrooms because they feel more comfortable there than in the men’s bathrooms … especially when they can pick and choose where and when they dress and instead find neutral bathrooms to use. Sorry.

My SO and I live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and we have no issues finding single-user spaces. But again in the real world (outside of the rhetorical arguments here), the crossdressers who have used women’s bathrooms in the past can continue to use them if they use common sense like they always have … except maybe if they live in the one or two states that are contentious right now. Look at the sticky in the media section about all the wins.

As to the people who do not identify as either male and female, we can continue the discussion about them in a separate thread because the spectrum there is too large with too many different ways to express gender and at this rate we’ll never get through it all.