ENDA: Barney Frank Shows His True Colors Yet Again

[Shana A]

ENDA: Barney Frank Shows His True Colors Yet Again

http://questioningtransphobia.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/enda-barney-frank-shows-his-true-colors-yet-again/

Language in the bill says that trans people cannot be forced to use a restroom that is not consistent with their gender presentation, but apparently, trans people who haven't yet had surgery can be barred from the restrooms consistent with their gender presentation.

This kind of restroom panic is not new to Barney Frank, as Marti lays out in excruciating and extensive detail. Barney has always been obsessed with trans women's genitals, constantly bringing up scenarios of helpless cis women being confronted by trans penises in restrooms, showers, locker rooms, as a reason to keep trans people out of ENDA. Barney is not simply trying to compromise with so-called moderates on the so-called issue of trans women in women's restrooms, he has consistently advanced the arguments that they should use to either demand such compromises or refuse to support a trans-inclusive ENDA. Some examples from Marti's post:

[rejennyrated]

This Barney Frank guy sounds like a complete nutter! Talk about OCD. If half of this stuff is true then he sounds like a fruit loop!

In the UK, talking like that he would almost certainly end up being locked up in an assylum, or at least made to take some serious anti psychotic meds!

I mean honestly - how can someone like that end up involved in a serious piece of legislation in America? 

[Suzy]

Barney Frank is one of the great disappointments, and IMHO one of the worst impediments to our full inclusion. 

I consider this as somewhat of an unfunded mandate.  I mean, is there anyone who can voluntarily choose not to pee?  Not for very long!  What will they do to us?  Send us into the men's?  No way, I would get the worst looks and would worry about getting attacked.  Send us out back to pee on a wall?  No, they would probably enjoy arresting us for indecent exposure.  But by all means, don't use the women's rooms, because there, behind a closed stall door, there is a penis.  Of course this might all change if, while banning all pre-ops from having normal bodily functions, they mandated that insurance in this country cover srs.  But that would be too easy, too humane, too fair, and make way too much sense. 

Kristi

[Randi]

DITTO!

[glendagladwitch]

Before this goes any further, Diego Sanchez has been posting that the bill makes it clear that employers must permit preop transwomen to use the ladies room, but they do not have to let them use it whenever they want.  They have to at least give them reasonable access to it at scheduled times so the transphobic can avoid using it at those times.  Diego is a transman who works at Barney Frank's office, so it's reasonable to think he has the inside scoop on the current language of the bill.  Given the hassle of setting up and policing the bathroom schedule, I expect most employers will just let the transitioners use the restrooms whenever they want, or will say they have to use the restroom near their office, so the phobes can go to another floor or whatever to use a different restroom.  Something like that.

I remember a transitioner 20 years ago who was given a key to locked restroom in the basement and told she had to use that one.  This bill would have helped her situation, I think.

[Randi]

Ok the more I read and hear about this the more deeply confused I become. Is Mr. Frank helping us or hindering us as TS?

[cynthialee]

Ok the more I read and hear about this the more deeply confused I become. Is Mr. Frank helping us or hindering us as TS?

we won't really know until the bill hits the floor and debate starts

[Chaunte]

Barny Frank is a true hindrance...  I wonder how HRC will try to throw us under the bus yet again...

[glendagladwitch]

Well, there's certainly an appearance that someone is being mislead.  Either what we're being told Diego is saying is accurate and Frank misled House "moderates" at the rollcall, or we're getting snowed now.   Maybe there is another explanation, and what Frank said at the rollcall was accurate then but not now.  I can't wait to see how this plays out.

[LordKAT]

Personally, why include any 'bathroom' language at all? I don't understand the need to include that with a bill preventing you from being hired or promoted and such. I plan to continue as I am even when it passes and if I am told to endure any bathroom policing, I will move and be total stealth before I deal with the stupidity.

[justmeinoz]

Is this person prepared for the sexual assault charges and law suits that will ensue when people are forcibly inspected to see what their genitals are? Unless he is prepared to take people at their word, compulsion will be neccesary to ensure compliance.

[Suzy]

Is this person prepared for the sexual assault charges and law suits that will ensue when people are forcibly inspected to see what their genitals are? Unless he is prepared to take people at their word, compulsion will be neccesary to ensure compliance.

Yeah I have been thinking about that. Can't you just see it?

"Pardon me, ma'am..."
"Yes, can you wait just a minute I need to go in the rest room."
"That's just it, you can't just walk in there."
"What are you talking about?"
"My name is Chester.  I am the newly appointed Pecker Checker.  I carry a badge.  I make sure no penises get by this door.  It you want to use the rest room, I will have to inspect you and certify you as vagina positive."
"Is this a joke?"
"No ma'am.  Unless you want to be reported to the Pecker Inspector General, you will have to lift up your skirt......."
"I would rather wet myself."


Sounds ridiculous, huh?   Apparently not.


Kristi

[Shana A]

Yeah I have been thinking about that. Can't you just see it?

"Pardon me, ma'am..."
"Yes, can you wait just a minute I need to go in the rest room."
"That's just it, you can't just walk in there."
"What are you talking about?"
"My name is Chester.  I am the newly appointed Pecker Checker.  I carry a badge.  I make sure no penises get by this door.  It you want to use the rest room, I will have to inspect you and certify you as vagina positive."

Yours truly wrote a blog post last year about "The POTTY Act" 

http://y2gender.com/index.php?blog=2&p=40&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Z

[tekla]

This Barney Frank guy sounds like a complete nutter! Talk about OCD. If half of this stuff is true then he sounds like a fruit loop!

In the UK, talking like that he would almost certainly end up being locked up in an assylum, or at least made to take some serious anti psychotic meds!

I mean honestly - how can someone like that end up involved in a serious piece of legislation in America?

Actually, many people consider him to be one of the few people in that building who is not clinically insane, particularly when you put him up against people like Michelle Bachman and Senator Jim Inhofe.

He's actually one of the few people up there who I think is honest in a very fundamental way.  And, no doubt about it, he came from an era where to succeed as he did, being who he was, he was going to have be pretty damn tough.  And he is.  Gruff too these days.  And he has never been one to tolerate fools gladly, if at all.

I think too many people look upon it as the beginning of some crusade for trans rights (which it's not going to be), or vast and sweeping sea-level change (very little will change right away), but it's not and it's not intended to be.  This is Frank's take on the legislation,: "I do have things I would like to see adopted on behalf of LGBT people: they include the right to marry the individual of our choice; the right to serve in the military to defend our country; and the right to a job based solely on our own qualifications. I acknowledge that this is an agenda, but I do not think that any self-respecting radical in history would have considered advocating people's rights to get married, join the army, and earn a living as a terribly inspiring revolutionary platform."

A law like this doesn't force people to act one way or the other, it just opens up the ability to sue people for compliance.  How those terms get worked out - all this still has to be legally defined, and for SURE, the rights of the people who are easily offended are going to come into play too.  The law itself (you can read it by going through Frank's webpage) spells out very little.  I don't think he really cares much about it anymore though.  W/O the trans part of it I bet it would have already passed.

But his main gig is being chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, going back to 2007 - which I would think since it oversees the entire financial services industry, which includes the securities, insurance, banking, and housing industries, has been keeping him pretty busy as the entire financial sector of the international economy is both unstable and melting down.

Barney Frank: The Story of America's Only Left-handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman, by Stuart Weisberg is a pretty interesting book.