This is becoming a scary trend.
Last year, North Carolina passed its now infamous HB-2 bill which made transgender people use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender on their birth certificate, not the gender they identify with now. Texas has proposed a similar law as well.
Virginia legislator Robert G. Marshall has filed a bill that is even worse. It restricts transgender people’s use of bathrooms in schools, highway rest stops, and government buildings. As far as schools are concerned, the bill would require principals to:
“… Notify all parents if a student at their children’s school asks to be treated as a member of the opposite sex — whether by being allowed to use a different bathroom or being addressed by a different name or pronoun. Mere separation of the sexes should not be considered discrimination.”
This law, the Physical Privacy Act, claims that the intention of the bill is to address the unnecessary concern that men and boys will pretend to be women to get into the women’s restrooms. Announcing this fact to the entire school is a huge invasion of the student’s privacy. Also, this could lead to any transgender students who do come out being targeted by bullies.
The idiocy from this guy is ridiculous, but not too surprising. This is the same man who thinks that pornography should be declared a public health hazard.
This bill overlaps with the case of 17-year-old Gavin Grimm in Gloucester. He was allowed to use the boys’ bathroom for a little while until the local school board ruled against it. Grimm said:
“I never thought that my restroom use would ever turn into any kind of national debate. The only thing I ever asked for was the right to be treated like everyone else.”
I really hope this bill doesn’t pass. It just boils down to fear. The right-wingers are afraid of everything. They think the LGBT community is pushing some “agenda,” which is ridiculous.
Here are the Young Turks talking about how police would enforce this bathroom law after North Carolina passed their original law:
Featured image by Marcin Wichary via Flickr, available under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
