The whole GOP brouhaha over transgender students and bathrooms is bad enough on its own. The bigotry is quite obvious, even though it is attempting to masquerade as upper middle-class whitebread fear. “Oh, what happens when my child is sexually assaulted by a trans student he/she is forced to share a restroom with?” plenty of suburban parents have postulated while clutching torches, pitchforks, and New International Version Bibles.
But, never fear! Your friendly neighborhood Republican Party is here, just in time to propose legislation that will make sure transgender students use bathrooms designated for their “correct anatomical sex!“
Va. Del. Mark Cole, R-88th, has proposed House Bill 663, which mandates “policies that require every restroom designated for public use in any public building on property that is owned, leased, or controlled” by the Commonwealth of Virginia “and that is designated for use by a specific gender to solely be used by individuals whose anatomical sex matches such gender designation.”
Anatomical sex, as defined in H.B. 663, is “the physical condition of being male or female, which is determined by a person’s anatomy.”
In short, if you were born as a dude, but identify as a Betty, then you have to use the dude facilities, and vice-versa.
While bigoted, those words are not as horrifying as some might assume. In fact, it’s the vagueness of the bill that’s a major cause for concern, not just its obvious transphobic nature.
The horrific facet of this bill is in how the policy may be implemented. How exactly are administrators and law enforcement going to enforce this bill if it becomes law? Some have questioned whether enforcement might be implemented through “genital checks.” While many would scoff at the idea of school administrators forcing Li’l Timmy and Li’l Sally to prove that they have a “weiner” and a “giny” before entering their respective bathrooms, there is no language in H.B. 663 that forbids it.
In fact, there’s no language that lays out any specific course of action at all. Instead, policies are left up to the “Director of the Department“ of General Services, Christopher L. Beschler.
Of course, it is just as conceivable that the implemented policies would be something as simple as a doctor’s note that confirms the anatomical gender of the student. “Li’l Timmy does, in fact, have a penis. Sincerely, Dr. Guy Dudemeister” may be enough. But then again, until otherwise stated, some Virginians may still question whether a doctor’s note, or even parental testimony, would be enough.
After all, the only way to empirically prove someone is who they say they are is first-hand observation. Logically, all other scenarios contain reasonable doubt. People lie.
While this is the harrowing possibility of H.B. 663 that has the Internet’s tighty-whities pulled over their foreheads, there are some other implications that should also be addressed. Any student, male or female, caught using bathrooms that fit their gender identity and not their anatomical gender are subject to a fine. Under the bill, they will be charged $50 per infraction and that fine can be assessed by “any law enforcement officer.” This means Officer Hank could assess the $50 fine to Li’l Sally if she uses the boy’s restroom.
Furthermore, what of parents and their children in public places? How about fathers out with their young daughters or mothers out with their young sons? What about the opposite-sex parents of the mentally disabled or the opposite-sex children of the elderly? Do they get fined for their responsibilities? Moreover, Which one gets fined?
H.B. 663 also extends to locker rooms and showers. While this may seem more reasonable to some (after all, bathrooms have a certain degree of privacy that locker rooms and showers lack), it is still indicative of a larger issue with the bill.
Students who do not wish to abide by the anatomical gender provisions in H.B. 663 have an alternate course of action they could take, so long as their school is accommodating. According to the bill, “such policies may also provide that a student may, upon request, be granted access, to the extent reasonable, to a single stall restroom or shower, a unisex bathroom, or controlled individual use of a restroom, locker room, or shower.”
Basically, they can opt for segregation.
Despite all of the hysteria over “genital checks,” which may or may not happen, there really isn’t a way H.B. 663 can be sliced that doesn’t make the the Va. GOP, or Del. Mark Cole, at the very least, look like anything more than a batshit right-winger making mountains like some bigoted termite. This bill is obviously transphobic, for there exists not any legitimate reason to separate trans people from the gender with which they identify.
Hell, there’s really no reason to separate men and women in general. Gender-segregated bathrooms are really just an “outdated relic of Victorian paternalism” anyway.
