There are several southern states joining North Carolina in passing transphobic bathroom laws. Unfortunately, Alabama is joining in on this party.
The Alabama Privacy Act would require places with public restrooms or changing rooms that have single-person rooms, rooms for multiple people of the same gender, or rooms for people “irrespective of their gender” staffed by a bathroom attendant.
These places could be stuck with $2,000 fine if they don’t comply, and they could get a $3,500 fine for any subsequent violations. The bill doesn’t really specify what function the bathroom attendants would serve.
The bill says that the attendants would:
“… Monitor the use of the restroom and answer any questions or concerns posed by users.”
Clete Wetli with Free2Be, an organization for LGBT youth, said this about the bill:
“We don’t need potty police. It looks like a lot of the civil rights that we’ve worked really hard to get maybe [sic] in jeopardy right now.”
This bill, SB1, makes Alabama the seventh state to put in potty police bills. There are seven states that already have or are working on their own bathroom bills. The addition of bathroom attendants makes Alabama’s the most strict.
More recently, Texas introduced their own bathroom bill. Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said:
“… Women and girls should have privacy and safety in their restrooms, showers and locker rooms. Unfortunately, legislation is necessary to assure that they do.”
The intolerant bill that started this, North Carolina’s HB2, caused a lot of businesses and sports teams to boycott the state. Virginia’s bathroom bill actually requires the schools to send a letter to all parents if a transgender student asks to be treated like the gender with which they identify. Transgender students already get teased enough. We’re having a national debate over them going to the bathroom. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
Featured image by SmartSign via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
