Unjust Arizona Bathroom Bill Dead For This Session

For my trans brothers and sisters who live in or are traveling through or into the state of Arizona for business or pleasure, you'll be happy to know that the act of pooping our pissing in the gender correct bathroom will not make you a criminal in the state. 

The unjust bathroom bill that GOP oppressor Rep. Jon Kavanagh filed that originally called for making it a Class 1 misdemeanor offense punishable by six months in jail and a $2,500 fine to use a public toilet, bathroom, shower, bath, dressing room or changing room associated with a gender other than what is on one's birth certificate has died for this session.

After a wave of international outrage, negative publicity and pushback from Arizona trans residents and the national trans community, Kavanagh modified his original draconian bill to shield businesses from civil or criminal liability if they ban people from restrooms that don’t match their birth gender.

According to Kavanagh there's concern in the GOP caucus about the unjust bill's definitions, so it will have to be shelved until next year.

Here's a suggestion Jon.  How about you drop the idea period and save you, your party and the state of Arizona further embarrassment and get thee to a psychologist to deal with that deep seated hatred you have for trans people?

Anti-Trans SB 1218 Is DEAD!

We TBLG Texans just keep finding ways to kill these anti-trans and anti-LGB bills in the Lone Star State despite the best efforts of our conservafools and Teapublican legislative members to pass them.  

I received the good news about SB 1218 being on life support on Saturday morning, but just to be sure I wanted to wait until the midnight deadline passed until I started doing the happy dance about its demise.  

Last year it was SB 723, and this year it was SB 1218.   While I was concerned after hearing this unjust bill passed out of the Texas Senate, I knew one thing in the Texas trans community's favor was this bill may not have enough time to go through the legislative process in the Texas House.

I was also hoping that the great karma we've lately had concerning international trans marriage wins in Malta and Hong Kong would rub off on us here, too

The unjust bill had to get passed out the House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee on which we had several powerful allies.   It's a nine member committee, so they need six members to constitute a quorum to conduct official business.  SB1218 also had the hurdle of if it had passed out of committee it had to do so yesterday and be placed on the House calendar by midnight May 21 or it died for the session.

So ding dong, that anti-trans bill is dead.  We get to exhale, celebrate for a minute, and then prepare for the Teahadists to come after trans Texans ability to marry again in the 2015 session unless they lose control of one or both chambers in the 2014 election cycle, the governor's chair or all of the above.

I suggest y'all get busy registering people to vote in the 2014 election cycle now so we can take the Texas legislature back and pass some progressive legislation in the 84th Texas legislature when it's gaveled into session in January 2015. 

Clock Ticking Toward Major 2013 Texas Lege Deadline

The 83rd session of the Texas legislature ends on May 27 and we are rapidly approaching a major legislative deadline at midnight.   All bills that passed the House or Senate and made it to the opposite chamber committees must be voted out of them and be placed on the House or Senate legislative calendars before midnight or they die for this session. 

So yep, the clock is ticking on the unjust SB 1218 bill.    It's still stuck in the House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee and showing In Committee status.  

As a reminder of why I'm calling it an unjust bill, it attempts to strip trans people of their ability to marry by prohibiting anyone from obtaining a marriage license with a document that lacks a photo.  One of the approved documents we can use to get a marriage license in Texas is an affidavit of sex change.

It must be voted out today and placed on the House calendar or else it dies for this session.

Tick, tick, tick, tick.   

Die, SB 1218 Die!

GOP Homobigot Attacking Texas Collegiate LGBT Centers Again With Unjust Amendment

Back in the 2011 session former State Rep Wayne Christian (R-Center) wasn't living up to his name and tried to pass an amendment in the state education funding bill that attempted to kill the GLBT centers on the Texas A&M, University of Houston, and University of Texas campuses by defunding them and banning them from being housed on campus. 

That amendment was dropped after Democrats threatened to scuttle the bill the hate amendment was attached to. 

Fast forward to this session of the Lege.   While Wayne Christian is (thank God) no longer in Austin, his idea unfortunately remains alive.  State Rep Bill Zedler (R-Arlington) has picked up the GLBT hating torch left by Christian and filed an amendment to SB1, the Texas general appropriations bill that would cut state funding from universities that have 'Gender and Sexuality Centers and Related Student Centers' on the grounds that they 'support, promote, or encourage any behavior that would lead to high risk behavior for AIDS, HIV, Hepatitis B, or any sexually transmitted disease.'

The conservacowards in Zedler's office wouldn't return phone calls to the Dallas Voice for comment    Why am I not surprised?

And in related news in College Station, the future homohaters in the Texas A&M student Senate continued their years long attack on the GLBT Center.  A vote may be taken later this week on a measure that would allow Aggie students to opt out of funding the GLBT Resource Center with their activity fees if they have 'religious objections'.

While Zedler's unjust amendment is aimed at the GLBT centers at UH, A&M and UT, in their zeal to legislatively bash the Texas TBLG community the women's centers on various Texas university campus may also be negatively affected by this unjust amendment along with the LGBT program at the University of Texas at Arlington in Zedler's district.    

So for you peeps living in the Lone Star State and our allies, you may wish to get busy calling your state rep and letting them know you want that amendment to die..
 

Unjust 'Your Trans Papers To Pee' SB 1432 Bill Filed In Arizona

When I spoke at the University of Arizona last year, I had a wonderful time visiting the state, chatting and having lunch with Antonia D'orsay, dinner with Dr. Susan Stryker, and interacting with the students, faculty and people in the Gallagher Theater audience during my speech.

When I was transiting the Phoenix and Tucson airports entering and leaving the state, eating lunch and dinner at the two restaurants I dined at in Tucson, and just before I took the stage for my speech in the Gallagher Theater I committed an act several times during that visit that would have gotten me arrested or harassed had an unjust bill that is now being proposed been in effect at that time.

I used the gender appropriate public restroom..

In the right wing (and trans exclusionary rad fem) zeal to grasp at anything to frack with the human rights of transpeople that they know they have no logic based reason or excuse to oppose, they have seized upon a tactic from the old white supremacist segregationist playbook and are trying to 'scurr' up opposition to transpeople by pimping the bathroom meme.

In the wake of Phoenix passing last month and preparing to implement a trans human rights law with public accommodations protections, the Forces of Intolerance in Arizona struck back. 

Republican John Kavanagh (surprise, surprise) penned SB 1432, an unjust bill that would make it a Class 1 misdemeanor offense punishable by six months in jail and a $2,500 fine to use a public toilet, bathroom, shower, bath, dressing room or changing room associated with a gender other than what is on one's birth certificate.

And y'all wanna know why I went off last year about the Massachusetts trans rights bill that doesn't have public accommodations language in it that they're trying to lobby to get added in now? 

Never mind the fact that two states, Idaho and Ohio will not let you change the gender markers period on your birth certificate, and others require gender reassignment surgery before they will do so.

While the unjust 'Your Trans Papers To Pee' bill was aimed at the transgender community, cisgender gay and straight folks who have ambiguous gender presentations would also find themselves caught up in this gender policing dragnet if SB 1432 passes the Republican-dominated Arizona legislature and gets Gov. Jan Brewer's (R) signature.

I'm concerned for my Arizona trans brothers and sisters about the increased harassment they will face from overzealous police officers and security guards, transphobic restroom patrons, passerbys and business owners if the unjust SB 1432 bill passes.

I'm also concerned about the trans people traveling into or through the state via its airports, by bus,  Amtrak trains, or driving Interstates 8, 10, 15, 17, 19 and 40 who would also be affected by this unjust bill and have to deal with that statewide cadre of  gender policing vigilantes.  These cisprivileged folks would have no problem reporting others to the po-po's who in their opinion don't measure up to their goalpost shifting standards of what a man or woman is supposed to look like.

I'm also concerned as a trans person of color that those unwanted interactions with POC transpeople and police could escalate to deadly levels.    

So Arizona TransGriot readers and allies, get busy helping our Arizona trans brothers and sisters defeat this unjust bill.   Here's some talking points on SB 1432 courtesy of my homegirl and proud Arizona resident Dyssonance to get you started.   

Let our people pee in peace.  And if they won't, time to consider having a few sit in's and pee in's protesting this unjust bill until they do.
   

Archbishop Tutu Reminds Ugandan MP's God Does Not Discriminate

TransGriot Note: Nobel laureate and Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu wrote this op-ed that was originally published at the Ugandan-based  Daily Monitor    Hope they heed his words and ponder them while they are on holiday break

Uganda’s Parliament is – unbelievably – on the verge of considering a new piece of legislation that would have the effect of legalising persecution, discrimination, hatred and prejudice in that country.
Should the Anti-Homosexuality Bill be voted into law, it will criminalise acts of love between certain categories of people, just as the apartheid government made intimate relations between black and white South Africans a punishable offence.

Members of the apartheid police force charged with the upkeep of “morality” would rush into the bedrooms of suspected offenders to gather evidence, such as warm bed sheets. Those found guilty were arrested, put on trial and punished. What awaits the people of Uganda?

One thing that Ugandan legislators should know is that God does not discriminate among members of our family. God does not say black is better than white, or tall is better than short, or football players are better than basketball players, or Christians are better than Muslims … or gay is better than straight. No. God says love one another; love your neighbour. God is for freedom, equality and love.

People have over many centuries devised all kinds of terrible instruments to oppress other people. Usually, they have rationalised their awful actions on the basis of their belief in their own superiority, in their culture, in their spiritual beliefs, in their skin colour. Thus, they argue, they are justified to hate and bomb and maim the “other”.

The anti-homosexuality legislation now under consideration in Uganda is just such an instrument. Nelson Mandela said: “No one is born hating another person.” If people are taught and can learn to hate, they can learn to love.

Many times in my life, I have been blessed to witness the innate capacity of our human family to reconcile differences. The common denominator in all these transactions is recognition that the notion of equal rights in any family, in any society, is non-negotiable. No sane person or group of people can sustainably argue that their rights should be more equal than others.

If what I am told is true, that the anti-homosexuality legislation in Uganda has widespread popular support, it should surely be the moral duty of the custodians of that country to educate its citizens about discrimination and equal rights. Surely, it should be their duty to clarify the fundamental misunderstandings in communities about what it means to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex (LGBTI).

The depiction of members of the LGBTI community as crazed and depraved monsters threatening the welfare of children and families is simply untrue, and is reminiscent of what we experienced under apartheid and what the Jews experienced at the hands of the Nazis.

To those who claim that homosexuality is not part of our African culture, you are conveniently ignoring the fact that LGBTI Africans have lived peacefully and productively beside us throughout history.
I am proud that in South Africa, when we succeeded in overthrowing apartheid, we put in place a Constitution that prohibited all forms of discrimination, including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

We did this because we understood that the freedom of one depends upon the freedom of all. We call it the spirit of ubuntu: the idea that I cannot be free if you are not also free.

A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, and does not feel threatened by others’ differences, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.

The ideology of racial superiority that was once used to justify the colonisation of our lands is part of our recent history. Today, we face a new challenge. We must overcome the notion that sexual orientation defines one’s identity or determines one’s station in life – or unjustly elevates one class of people over another.
It is with supreme sorrow that I witness, to this day, the subjugation and repression of African brothers and sisters whose only crime is the practice of love. Hate, in any form or shape, has no place in the house of God.

I urge the people of Uganda to reject hatred and prejudice.

Love comes more naturally to the human heart than hate.

Unjust Tennessee Transphobic Bill Dead For Now

The transphobic HB 2279 bill that Tennessee state representative transbigot Richard Floyd (R-Chattanooga) introduced that sought to make it a Class C misdemeanor crime punishable by a $50 fine to use a public restroom or dressing room "designated for one particular sex" if not a member of that designated sex.appears to be dead for now.

Rep. Floyd told Nashville's WTVF-TV his motivation for introducing HB 2279 was reading news reports about the San Antonio Macy's dressing room incident involving transphobic clerk Natalie Johnson.  She denied access to the transwoman in violation of Macy's corporate policy and was subsequently terminated

"I just do not want the same sort of thing happening in Tennessee," Floyd said in a WTVF-TV interview, adding that he believes "society is on the slippery slope to depravity" and the bill would help average citizens avoid being forced to "go along with the perverted way of thinking" promoted by a few persons.

Yeah, right.  And what about us citizens who don't want your conservabigotry imposed on us?  

Moving on to the good news.   The bill was effectively killed (for now) thanks to Sen. Bo Watson (R-Hixson) withdrawing his Senate version of the unjust bill. 

For the unjust bill to become law it not only had to pass both chambers of the Tennessee General Assembly, it needed at least one sponsor in the Senate to do so.  

As of this writing no one in the Senate has stepped up to be the sponsor for Rep Floyd's transphobic bill.  
 
As Marisa Richmond of the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition pointed out in a MetroWeekly article, in the TTPC's view the bill had it been enacted would be unconstitutional: "For any gender non-conforming, or gender variant person, we see this as a violation of their Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures."

In addition, the bill would have put transpeople and androgynous looking cis people transiting the Volunteer State either in its airports, bus stations or interstate highways traversing the state in the position of being cited for violating the draconian bill.   That's before we even talk about cleaning staffs and parents who bring children of the opposite gender into restrooms with them or fitting rooms.

So yeah, this was a bad bill that needed to die.   This is a prime example of a legislator seeking to write an unjust law targeting a minority group and in the process not seeing (or caring) that it would have ripple effects far beyond the group they were singling out for vindictive action.

The TTPC will keep a watchful eye on the HB 2279 situation and so will I.  .

Unjust Tennessee Transphobic Bill Update

Since I posted about the transphobic 'Bathroom Harassment Bills' that two Tennessee legislators filed less than 24 hours after the session started January 10, there have been some new developments since I first posted the story.

SB 2292, the Senate version of the unjust bill that was sponsored by Bo Watson (R-Hixson) as a favor to Rep. Richard Floyd has been withdrawn with the senator's communications director stating his reason for it was that “Sen. Watson concluded that there are far more pressing issues facing the state of Tennessee at this time.”

That is not deterring Rep Floyd (R-Chattanooga)  who is doubling down on the transbigotry, ramping up the transphobic rhetoric and continuing to push HB 2279. 

He said he'd resort to violence if a transwoman was in the restroom with his wife or daughters.

FLOYD: I believe if I was standing at a dressing room and my wife or one of my daughters was in the dressing room and a man tried to go in there — I don’t care if he thinks he’s a woman and tries on clothes with them in there — I’d just try to stomp a mudhole in him and then stomp him dry.

Don’t ask me to adjust to their perverted way of thinking and put my family at risk. We cannot continue to let these people dominate how society acts and reacts. Now if somebody thinks he’s a woman and he’s a man and wants to try on women’s clothes, let him take them into the men’s bathroom or dressing room.

He also doubled down on the transphobic insanity by trying to claim his bill doesn't 'penalize anybody', would 'protect everybody' and he doesn't care what transpeople or trans advocacy groups think about it'

Vanillacentric cis privilege in action folks. .



Yeah Richard, that was the same excuse and jacked up thinking people who shared your ethnicity used over five decades ago to justify segregated bathrooms during the Jim Crow era.  

Stay tuned, this is going to continue to be interesting to watch.

God bless them, the TTPC will have their hands full as they always do every legislative session as they battle to make life better for Tennessee trans people. . 

It's also a living example of what I consistently point out to liberal-progressive people.  

You cannot expect liberal-progressive social policies to come out of conservative politicians.  We need to be as zealous in sending our people to public office to represent our values and agenda as the conservafools have been in electing people like Rep. Richard Floyd to represent their bigoted values and devoid of logic agenda.

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.