Odious New Anti-Transgender Bill Introduced in Tennessee General Assembly

[Shana A]

Scottie Thomaston
Queer and criminal justice rights and disability rights activist and writer

Odious New Anti-Transgender Bill Introduced in Tennessee General Assembly
Posted: 1/12/12 11:48 AM ET

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scottie-thomaston/odious-new-antitransgende_b_1201889.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Note: This piece also appears on DailyKos.com

A new anti-transgender "bathroom bill" was filed in Tennessee's General Assembly today by a Republican state Senator. The bill "restricts access to public restrooms and public dressing rooms designated by sex to members of that particular sex." There is a monetary fine for people who violate the law. And since in Tennessee it's legally impossible to get your sex changed on your birth certificate (and only a little less impossible to get it changed on your drivers' license), this affects all transgender and gender non-conforming people.

Tennessee has been proposing and passing some of the most homophobic and transphobic bills in the country -- it is, after all, the state that passed HB600 stripping local jurisdictions of LGBT antidiscrimination provisions. There are ongoing court challenges to that law I'll be discussing soon. There's also the "license to bully" bill. And the "Don't Say Gay" bill was introduced there as well.

[Keaira]

Wow! What a backwards little state Tennessee is. I feel sorry for the people who live there who are having their freedoms stripped away little by little by the people they elected to lead.

[Felix]

Wow! What a backwards little state Tennessee is. I feel sorry for the people who live there who are having their freedoms stripped away little by little by the people they elected to lead.

My little sister moved to Tennessee a year or two ago, and I don't know how it hasn't suffocated her yet. She's not trans or anything, but she's a tattooed-up artist married to a rockabilly musician. I can't imagine someone like myself living there.

[Tammy Hope]

god news on this subject.

Here's a link referencing the House sponsor threatening to "stomp a mudhole" in a trans-person he found going into the "wrong" room. but if you read further down, the local Chattanooga paper is running a pol which is clocking 88% against the proposed bill (yes, internet polls are untrustworthy but that's still pretty big)

Much more importantly, it says the guy who agreed to submit this bozo's bill in the Senate as a courtesy has already gotten such blowback that he's withdrawn the bill in the Senate.

http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2012/01/12/state-rep-threatens-to-stomp-transgender-people-in-wrong-bathrooms