Bathroom Battle: States Grapple With Transgender Rights
By Katy Steinmetz
March 29, 2013

http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/29/bathroom-battle-states-grapple-with-transgender-rights/

What do you call it when a person enters a bathroom but the sign outside doesn't match the sex listed on his or her birth certificate? Disorderly conduct, according to a bill offered earlier this month by Arizona state Rep. John Kavanagh. But the measure sparked outrage in the LGBT community, which saw discrimination against transgender citizens. Kavanagh responded with a revamped, more limited version, which protects businesses that bar such practices from civil or criminal liability. After a contentious seven-hour hearing on Wednesday dominated by opposition to the proposal, a House panel voted along party lines to approve it.

As the Supreme Court considers same-sex marriage, and with gay couples enjoying more rights and protections than ever, pitched debates in state capitals are a reminder that transgender rights remain unclear and controversial. Of the roughly 9 million people in the U.S. who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, according to a 2011 study, roughly 700,000 say they are transgender.

One reason that transgender rights remain murky is because the American public is still coming to understand who they are: a survey released in 2011 showed that 3 in 10 Americans cannot identify what it means to be transgender and dictionary definitions aren't cut-and-dry. (The Oxford English Dictionary's rather tortured entry: "a person whose identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional notions of male or female gender, but combines or moves between these.") Confusion or discomfort about where gender lines are drawn make bathrooms a perennial hot-button, because those are the only places most people are self-segregating based on their gender in an average day.

The big point is education of the public. 

Why can't we just have a doctors-note system?  Once you're diagnosed, your therapist or GP or whoever gives you a note saying "This person is transgender and allowed to use the restrooms for the gender they are currently presenting as in accordance with <reference some law here>.  Violators will be towed."

* secret benefit * this will encourage more trans people to seek out help rather than, say, self medicating.

Quote from: Anna Michele on April 05, 2013, 11:50:55 AM
Why can't we just have a doctors-note system?  Once you're diagnosed, your therapist or GP or whoever gives you a note saying "This person is transgender and allowed to use the restrooms for the gender they are currently presenting as in accordance with <reference some law here>.  Violators will be towed."

* secret benefit * this will encourage more trans people to seek out help rather than, say, self medicating.

I've known a few people with carry letters, I had one too, but never needed it. I actually think its still in my purse too after all these years.


And help isn't always so easy to get in some places or remotely affordable. Not sure why you even brought that into the topic anyway. It has nothing to do with going to the bathroom appropriate to your gender identity/expression.

I was trying to think of a solution where trans people can use the bathrooms while keeping creepy cis-guys out of the womens room.

Quote from: Anna Michele on April 05, 2013, 03:14:06 PM
I was trying to think of a solution where trans people can use the bathrooms while keeping creepy cis-guys out of the womens room.

In some cases a carry letter would work, but in situations like the bill in the article, it would not keep a business from discriminating against whether we had a doctor's note or not. It would actually protect the business's "right" to legally discriminate instead. And a lot of states have no protection for us and aren't likely to get them any time soon, even the state I live in. So I just go in, do my business and get out and so far, I've had no issues.

And to the people that are behind that bill and similar bills we are the creepy ones, not anyone else.