Quote from: suzifrommd on March 18, 2015, 09:04:39 AM
Jill, I hate to disagree with your analysis, but I feel like the reason why this bill is so horrific is exactly the opposite of what you say.
I don't think it WILL create widespread problems that will be visible to the public. I think Transpeople who pass will continue to use the correct restroom and no one will be the wiser. I think Trans people who are not passable will either correct their documentation or stay away from public restrooms to the detriment of their health but with no impact on the public. Occasionally someone who can't or doesn't update their documentation will be arrested but it will be an infrequent enough event that it will not spark a public outcry. Also occasionally a cisgender person who looks trans will be hassled, but those misunderstandings will be probably be cleared up quickly.
In other words, I think that if it becomes law, it will look to all the world as a successful law. It will be used as a template for other states to create similar laws which are much easier to pass than the current draconian chromosome-based trash. We'll start to see more bathroom bills, and the dominoes will begin to fall.
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The most vulnerable segments of our community will be seriously harmed. Those who are deciding between suicide and exploring their gender will have no viable bathroom options, and that will drive them indoors. We'll see suicides among people who might otherwise have made it through transition and enjoyed living a life as their true gender. Those are the true victims of this law.
Also it will harm non-passable trans women from other jurisdictions that do not provide correct documentation. They will need to stay away from Florida (if they know what's good for them) which will impact their travel options but also not affect the Floridian public.
That is exactly my thoughts and the basis of what i sent to the committee members on Monday, I may as well post my email below, at least someone will read it then.
I'm kind of worried that it will get close enough, it does even have the potential to be good for us, and already does provide a legal right for trans people to use the correct rest room, so Artiles is correct and is shouting about it that it does improve the rights of trans people, but only in a perverted and underhand way that
could will cause vigilantly ID checks, and leaves out the most venerable. My fear is that it gets good enough for those campaigning against it who are mostly transitioned and correct ID holding people but i hope and suspect they will fight all the way.
Anyway, last Mondays email, i have already started writing something for the Judiciary committee.
Quote from: Debbie spoke to deaf ears
I am writing to you today to bring to your attention two groups of individuals who were under represented during the debate on HB 583 in the Civil Justice Subcommittee. Whilst the trans people and supporters did a good job in highlighting the problems openly and transitioning trans people suffer, two groups who were barely mentioned were transgendered tourists and early transitioning/questioning transgender people.
The latter of those groups being the most venerable of an already extremely venerable section of society. Often the point of taking the decision to give up on a lifetime in an unsuccessful gender identity and take the steps to one's real gender identity is at a point of a real choice between life and death. The suicide rate for pre transition transgender people is shockingly high.
People at this stage of their life may not even identify themselves as transgender, every step of self-acceptance and discovery during early transition is surrounded in intense fear. The first step outside the front door, getting out of the car, opening the mall door and stepping into a store and heaven forbid should they feel the need to use a restroom. Many cannot overcome these fears unable to move forward from fear and unable to live with the mental turmoil of being trans, they often end up adding to those suicide statistics.
If HB 583 is allowed to pass into law, it will make those first steps so much harder, for some it will be enough to stop them from making those first steps; it will be enough to tip the balance from accepting life as a trans person to choosing to end life by their own hand. Trans people may be at higher risk of violence in everyday life and especially in their birth gender restrooms, but they suffer more from their own minds and at their own hand under the pressure of social discrimination and rejection. HB583 if passed into law will indirectly end the lives of some transgender individuals.
Further to the above comments is another aspect of this bill in relation to transgender tourists, Florida is a tourist state, for many emerging transgender people the pressure of stepping out for the first time in their home town is too great, but for many that fear can be overcome whilst on vacation and away from home.
Quite separate from all the issues relating to anyone demanding to see gender Identification, all of these people are so early in their gender identity journey that they are not in a position to present government ID with their preferred gender marker, but they are no less transgender than those who have fully transitioned, and all of those who have transitioned have been in the same stage at one time.
Even after taking those steps to transition, appropriate gender identification is far from early in the process, in some countries around the world it simply isn't possible, in others it can take many years to be available, In the UK for example whilst it is easy to change your name and title with a simple self-declaration and transition can be provided for from the National health service, changing gender on identification documents is not possible without a diagnosis and letter from a doctor, The waiting list for first appointments to see a doctor run to 18 months, the letter is then not likely to be available for a further 3-6 months and after spending at least some time presenting as a preferred gender. During all that time a single visit to a restroom whilst on vacation in Florida would see a possible custodial sentence.
I realize I have rambled on for quite some time, but there is so much to say on this subject and so many words I have left out of this email and I thank you for your time to read it, as a final thought I beg of you not to criminalize this small section of society who is so venerable, if you cannot dispose of this bill to the scrap heap I appeal to you to at least take a look at the gender identity and expression definitions in HB33 "Florida Competitive Workforce Act." As this has a more inclusive definition of gender variant individuals and would even seem to cover Artiles concern of predatory cis males claiming "they feel like a woman". In fact I will copy it here for ease
(
"Gender identity or expression" means gender related identity, appearance, or behavior, whether such gender related identity, appearance, or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with the person's physiology or assigned sex at birth, which gender related identity can be shown by providing evidence, including, but not limited to:
(a) Medical history, care, or treatment of the gender related identity;
(b) Consistent and uniform assertion of the gender related identity; or
(c) Other evidence that the gender related identity is a sincerely held part of a person's core identity and is not being asserted for an improper purpose.
In the interests of full disclosure a little about myself. I am a transgender woman from the United Kingdom. Legally I am gendered male. My interest in Florida is as a tourist and I have visited the beaches of Pinellas County for over 20 years and for many of them I have spent up to two months in your state on vacation. Please make no mistake; the world really is watching Florida. Artiles stated in his closing to the Civil Justice subcommittee that "we are a family oriented state, not a progressive state". Please realize you can be both.
Thank you
