Let My People Pee!

One of the things that comes up with depressing regularity in the now six years that I have been chronicling events that affect the trans community is the bathroom issue.

I am along with other trans people around the USA and the world beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of having to confront cis people's ignorance and rank bigoted stupidity when it comes to us trans peeps being able to simply go to the bathroom and handle our nature calls.

It's past time for us to be able to do so without us having to sue your azzes to do so, call you out in the media,  be harassed, risk arrest or a beatdown.

Trans community, I've said this before and it bears repeating, it's time to go to war over the 'bathroom predator' meme.   It is fueling much of the discrimination aimed at us, led to one Tennessee state rep trying to legislate the 'bathroom meme' into existence before the negative attention he received for it led to its withdrawal, and triggered a recent hate attack in New York.

It's time to eviscerate it to the point that anyone who parts their lips to say it has as much credibility as a birther and gets laughed at in the process..

And I'll say it again: let my people pee!.

University Of Pittsburgh Imposes A Transphobic Gendered Facilities Policy

When the 2012-13 school year rolls around, I'll be joining much of the Big East Conference in hatin' on the University of Pittsburgh for a different reason other than their upcoming 2013 departure from the Big East for the ACC.

In a step that would make transphobic rad fems and the Exterminationalist Twins proud, the University of Pittsburgh took a transphobic step backwards in regards to campus gendered facility policy for trans students.

Last month the Pitt Anti-Discrimination Policies committee, one of the standing advisory committees of the University Senate, unanimously passed a resolution that would allow students to use bathrooms allocated to the gender they identify with, not their birth one. .The ADP committee includes Pitt faculty, staff and two Pitt students who do not have voting power: Board member Julie Halinan and Rainbow Alliance President Tricia Dougherty.  .  

On Tuesday an unidentified Pitt spokesperson stated that students must use the gendered facilities that correspond with gender on their birth certificate, not how they currently present.

That's problematic on several levels.  Pennsylvania is one of the states that only allows birth certificate changes if the person in question undergoes SRS.   That's an out of the question expense for many trans college students.  It also doesn't take into account some states like Tennessee will not allow or offer new or amended birth certificates under any circumstances.  

Pitt's transphobic policy is also in conflict with the recently adopted NCAA competition policies for trans student athletes, the non-discrimination laws in the city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County and could open trans students to anti-trans violence if forced to use a gender facility that doesn't correspond with their gender presentation.

And as trans Pitt student Alice Haas pointed out, "“I find it absolutely barbaric and appalling that the University of Pittsburgh requires forced castration in order for me to be considered female, especially when my driver’s license and passport both state otherwise,” Haas said. “It is in no way just or appropriate to force me to provide information on my genitals or my birth certificate.”

Pennsylvania was also one of the states in which the Republifools got control of the state legislature in 2010, so peeps who don't pay attention to politics, this is another fine example of how lack of attention to what's happening politically can bite you in the behind.

Stay tuned, this battle in the Keystone State and on the Pitt campus is going to get interesting.

Baltimore County MD Trans Rights Bill Scheduled For Monday Vote

There was another contentious hearing held about the proposed Baltimore County MD trans rights bill in which once again, the only thing the Forces of Intolerance could hurl at it in a desperate attempt to stop its passage was the Bathroom Meme. 

One of their attack lines was already throughly debunked at the January hearing, but that didn't stop the haters from trying to 'scurr' people about transpeople in their bathrooms and lighting up the switchboard.to attempt to sway the Baltimore County Council into voting against Bill 3-12

The bill would add gender identity to existing county laws that prohibit discrimination in housing, workplaces, and public places, but due to the Hateraid an amendment is being considered that if passed would ensure 3-12 wouldn't apply to public places "that are designated for male or female use, such as restrooms, bath houses, locker rooms, dressing rooms, changing rooms, and similar facilities."

In other words, it would leave a gigantic fracking public accommodations loophole in it   

Here's where you get to fight back against the haters and help our transbrothers and trans sisters in Maryland. . 

Moving on to the haters.  We've been reliving ourselves in the gender appropriate restrooms and doing so without incident to you cispeople since Christine Jorgenson stepped off the plane from Denmark 59 years ago this month.  

It's y'all cis people attacking us  and you foaming at the mouth cisgender transbigots we transfolks have to worry about.

An Opposition Big Lie Exposed In Baltimore County, MD

The Baltimore County Council is considering a trans human rights law that once again, the opponents are trying to use the odious bathroom meme to kill  

Bill 3-12 was introduced to a packed chamber and if passed would protect transpeople in the workplace, house and all together people, public accommodations

Back on December 6 the Howard County MD Council passed on a 4-1 vote trans human rights legislation that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and expression in the areas of employment, housing, public accommodations, financing, and health and social services. 

They were the third jurisdiction in the state of Maryland to do so after Baltimore City and Montgomery County.

Supporters of the proposed legislation along with the haters showed up in Towson, the county seat. The Forces of Intolerance were represented by Dr. Ruth Jacobs, the head of the Maryland Citizens Bigots For A Responsible Government and Derek McCoy of the Association of (Bigoted) Maryland Families to pimp their usual transphobic lies and fearmongering

Transphobia alert:

JACOBS: It opens up the bathrooms to men who may be just cross-dressers, who may be a pedophile who uses the law to nefarious advantage. It’s a very dangerous bill. In this law, you’re afraid to complain because [you think] Oh my goodness — maybe I’ll be considered a bigot. But, of course it could be somebody who’s trying to rape me.
This takes away from a woman being a woman. Somebody else is just like you. These people are confused about their gender.

The bill is a direct attack on women’s privacy.

MCCOY: When you look at this bill, the terrible thing about it is you’re talking about allowing someone who self-identifies (as a man or a woman) — meaning I can get up any given day of the week, especially if I have inclinations that are not right, like being a pedophile or a sexual deviant — and putting in harm’s way children who are using public facilities. They can be taken, they can be molested. We need to be on our guard and understand what’s at stake.

***

What's at stake Derek, Ruth and all you other assorted haters are trans human rights with public accommodations coverage.  The Chrissy Polis case demonstrably exposed the need for them.along with the Injustice at Every Turn Report.

And speaking of exposed, one of the lies the opponents told was busted

The transphobes alleged that since the Montgomery County, MD trans rights law was passed in 2007 there have been four rapes committed by crossdressed men lying in wait for their victims in ladies restrooms.

Montgomery County Chief of Police J. Thomas Manger sent a letter to Baltimore County Councilmember Tom Quirk, the sponsor of the proposed legislation stating that since the November 13, 2007 passage of the law there have been ZERO sexual assaults of the kind they allege.  

Next hearing is scheduled for February 14 with a vote scheduled on February 21.  Let's hope trans residents of Baltimore County get to feel the love next month from the County Council and get the human rights coverage they desperately need. 
  .

Unjust Transphobic Bills Introduced In Tennessee

Remember when I mentioned that one of the things we needed to do as a community was utterly discredit, crush and destroy the bathroom predator meme being aimed at us by foe and frenemy?  

Here's Exhibit A as to why it needs to be discredited, crushed under an avalanche of scientific fact and utterly destroyed to the point where people laugh at you for bringing it up.

Peep the bill the Tennessee General Assembly introduced less than 24 hours after the session started in Nashville on Tuesday. 

Transphobic bills have been introduced in both the Tennessee Senate and the House that would make it a class "C" misdemeanor for a trans person to be using a "restroom" or "dressing room" not designated by their "sex" listed on their "birth certificate."

Tennessee has a 65-34 Republican majority in the House and a 20-13 Republican majority in the state senate.   Passage of these bills and Republican Governor Bill Haslam's signature of them will put Tennessee transsexuals at significant risk and in a Catch 22 situation as Tennessee will NOT change the sex designation on the birth certificate even if the transperson in question has had SRS.

So yeah, I smell a civil rights lawsuit coming on this one if it does pass, especially when you don't allow people born in Tennessee to change the gender designations on their birth certificates.

Senate Bill 2282 was introduced by Senator Bo Watson (R-Hixson)

House Bill 2279 was introduced by Representative Richard Floyd (R-Chattanooga)

***

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 68, Chapter 15, Part 3, relative to public restrooms and dressing rooms.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:

SECTION 1 Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 68, Chapter 15, Part 3, is amended by adding the following language as a new section:

68-15-304
(a) As used in this section:

(1) “Sex” means and refers only to the designation of an individual person as male or female as indicated on the individual’s birth certificate;
(2) “Public building” means a building owned or leased by the state, any agency or instrumentality of the state or any political subdivision of the state;
(3) “Restroom” means a room maintained within or on the premises of any public building and made available to the public, containing toilet facilities for use by employees or the public;
(5) “Dressing room” means a room maintained within or on the premises of any public building, used primarily for changing clothes.

(b) Except as provided in § 68-15-303, where a restroom or dressing room in a public building is designated for use by members of one particular sex, only members of that particular sex shall be permitted to use that restroom or dressing room.

(c) A violation of subsection (b) is a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a to a fine of fifty dollars ($50.00).

SECTION 2. If any provision of this act or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of the act which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to that end the provisions of this act are declared to be severable.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.

***

Been advised by an attorney friend that the proposed bill would also affect transpeople transiting through airports (Delta and Southwest have hubs in Memphis and Nashville), bus stations or simply using a rest area bathroom along interstate highways in Tennessee. 

Interstates 24, 26, 40, 55, 65, 69, 75 and 81 either traverse through or in the I-55/I-69 case, it has a small multiplexed segment of it transiting through the Volunteer State in the Memphis area.

If the unjust bill passes I can already imagine a scenario in which a transwoman has to handle her nature call, heads to the bathroom and some overzealous security guard or some transphobic hater finds a cop while that person is handling their business and then drama starts before or after they exit the lavatory.  

And yeah, it isn't just a trans problem.   You cis people with androgynous looks or who get ignorantly pegged as trans by the unwashed masses will be affected by this as well.

So yeah, for those of us who don't live in Tennessee, it's officially our business too.  Besides, why should any transwoman or a cis woman with ambiguous gender characteristics have to show ID to go to a fracking bathroom?

Once again, the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition and its allies have their work cut out for them in Nashville in terms of killing these unjust bills.  

Let us know Tennessee trans family how your brothers and sisters around the country and the world can help you with that task.