Posts Tagged: transgender rights
Easter in Texas: Resurrected Bathroom Bill Now A Sickening Zombie
Part-time Texas Governor and full time conniving Slytherin, Greg Abbott, announced his encouragement of Texas House Bill 2899, which bars transgender individuals from using the bathroom consistent with their gender and overturns any anti-discrimination ordinances passed by Texas localities. HB 2899 is the evil spawn of Texas Senate Bill 6, which had similar aims but is being held up by Speaker of the House Joe Strauss, who is taking his sweet time (probably intentionally) to assign the bill to a committee. Without a committee assignment, the bill has lost traction. This stall apparently concerned hateful lawmakers, who seem hell bent on passing any type of trans-discriminatory legislation before the Texas session is over in May. So how bad is this resurrected bathroom bill? IT’S TERRIBLE! UGLY! NO GOOD! Brainless, decayed and… Read more »
Protect Trans Kids
Yall’s president decided to rescind protections for transgender students that allowed them to use restrooms corresponding to their gender identity setting the tone for how his administration is going to handle LGBTQIA issues over the next four years. As organizers, activists, and advocates, we knew on November 8th that the next four years was going to be filled with actions and protests to protect the constitutional rights of traditionally oppressed and marginalized communities that are being threatened. From interrupting confirmation hearings, nationwide marches, and holding elected representatives accountable at townhalls (when they actually show up), we have been vocalizing our distaste and concern of a discriminatory agenda from the White House. This agenda’s next target is the trans community, and we have to prepare ourselves to stand against this…. Read more »
Uncertainty is OKAY: On Gatekeeping & Transitioning
Growing up, I vaguely knew of trans people from their routinely featured roles on Jerry Springer, yet quickly became familiar with them through their public denigration, references, and comments leaving my family’s mouth unfiltered. It wasn’t until one of my many excursions across Youtube, desperately seeking advice on how to tell my family of my own truth, that I came across an FTM coming out video. Simultaneously amazed and perplexed, I continued watching these videos, convinced that my interest lay solely in learning their stories. A consistent theme in many of the coming out videos I watched was how seamless arriving at the decision to start hormone replacement therapy (hrt) was for them, though not always immediate, eventually feeling 100%, undoubtedly comfortable. I continued to watch these videos, hoping that something would spark the… Read more »
The Anti-Trans Bathroom Bill in Kansas is Dead…But for How Long?
The Kansas State legislature adjourned their 2016 session early Monday morning until their ceremonial adjournment in June. This means that any legislation which was not brought to the floor was automatically killed. In that group of now-dead legislation was the infamous bathroom bill, HB 2737. It may seem like good news, but I would caution otherwise. The way I see it, the legislature has seen the backlash restrictive bathroom legislation has received in recent news. With it being an election year, no one in a swing district wants to do something too controversial; North Carolina provided enough warning. Effectively, the legislatures will just be waiting out the tide of media coverage on the issue, so if and when it is brought back to floor, the same kind of media pressure will probably… Read more »
Kansas Law Creates a Bounty for Trans Students
This month, the Kansas state legislature passed two bills that pay students to openly discriminate against their trans peers. Unfortunately, Governor Brownback signed both bills into law. One of them forces institutions to pay religious student organizations for partaking in active exclusion of any group under the guise of religious liberties. The second effectively places a bounty on trans students who use the restroom that they are most comfortable in by saying that they are a threat to ‘physical privacy.’ The ironically named Student Physical Privacy Act, states that students using facilities designated for the opposite sex of their biological sex threaten the psychological and physical safety of others. This narrow definition of biological sex completely excludes intersex folks from the discussion. The language of the Act also states that public schools, including universities, need… Read more »
Houston Fails to Be a “HERO” for Trans Community
This week the city of Houston had the opportunity to make history in the Civil Rights movement with the HERO ordinance. The city failed to make these important strides forward with a 61 percent to 39 percent vote. The HERO Act stands for the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance and it would have prohibited discrimination in public restrooms, thus allowing trans-people to use restrooms they are comfortable with based on their gender identity. I think it’s safe to say the failure behind this failed ordinance is rooted in transphobia. Opponents of the ordinance said it made women more vulnerable to predators and former Houston Astros player Lance Berkman said transgender women are troubled men in a radio ad. This negative attitude and ignorance toward the trans community is what causes crucial… Read more »
Proposed Florida Law Bans Transgender People From Bathrooms
A couple weeks ago, something truly awful happened in Florida. State Representative Frank Artiles filed a bill, HB 583, that “requires that use of single-sex facilities be restricted to persons of sex for which facility is designed.” Basically, the bill targets transgender individuals and is meant to stop them from using the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. Under the bill, a transgender man would have to use the women’s bathroom—something which can be both dangerous physically and mentally. BuzzFeed spoke with Artiles, who said that, “People are not forced to go to the restroom. They choose to go to the restroom.” Which is about as stupid as saying, “People are not forced to breathe air. They choose to breathe air.” For example, if you have an eight-hour work… Read more »
