User:Woozle/Why Republicans Suck/policies/bathroom

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Pointless "Bathroom Safety" Laws

Republicans, in an apparent backlash against municipal laws intended to protect trans people from abuse (a real problem, but one they write off as "political correctness"), Republicans have been sponsoring a wave of bathroom laws designed to... well, we don't really know what they're intended to accomplish as policy; their primary purpose seems to be posturing for their base, for whom transpeople have been offered up as an imaginary Terrible Threat against which only Republicans are willing to defend us all.

It should be noted that there have been more US Senators arrested for misconduct in bathrooms than there have been trans people arrested for same. (Why don't the Republicans warn us of the Terrible Threat posed by US Senators, and do something about it?)

The GOP on Safety: a brief history

Part 1:

Me: We need reasonable gun laws.
GOP: It's already illegal to shoot people.
GOP: [fights all attempts at gun regulation of any kind]

Part 2:

GOP: We need to protect people in bathrooms against those wicked transies!
Me: It's already illegal to harass in the loo.
GOP: [makes law anyway]

— adapted from a Tweet by Josie Brenda

NC

North Carolina's recent SB2[1] is perhaps the gold standard of awful legislation, regardless of topic. It not only ignores multiple facts and contradicts both itself and stated Republican positions, but it's also written so ambiguously that local governments have been left scratching their heads as to what their obligations under the law actually are now -- which, of course, is consistent with the general tendency of Republicans to destroy effective government wherever and however they can.

State Representative Paul Stam (R) spoke in support[2] of the bill, and it was signed by Governor Pat McCrory (R). The vote was unanimous in the NC Senate because all of the Democrats walked out in disgust.

Looking primarily at the "bathroom safety" part of the bill, it commits the following sins:

  • Fact-blindness: Allowing people to use the bathroom of their identified gender does not in any way pose a public hazard. People not being allowed to do so does pose a public hazard. The lawmakers are well aware of this, from numerous testimony.
  • Fact-blindness: They don't even make an exception for those who have had corrective surgery. While such a law would still be abusive, it would at least be a bit more consistent with the idea that physical differences need to be accommodated via separate bathrooms. As it is, the implication is: however you are identified at birth (correctly or otherwise) is what you will always be, with no room for error or change.
  • Fact-blindness: Claiming that the protective law enacted by Charlotte "defies common sense and basic community norms by allowing, for example, a man to use a woman’s bathroom, shower or locker room." (This is absolutely factually untrue -- and the law he signed now requires transmen to use the women's room.)
  • Hypocrisy: quashing local ordinances using the "big government" of state authority -- while claiming to oppose "big government" (a principle they also use to cut social safety programs) It should be noted that the "big government" aspect goes beyond trans protections: "The law also prevents cities from regulating in areas like living wage laws, benefits and hour regulations for workers in the city, city contracting, and even child labor regulations."[3]
  • Hypocrisy: Citing "basic privacy and etiquette" while denying those things to a particular group that actually needs them, and not actually making any improvements on those things for anyone.
  • Hypocrisy: Claiming that "The basic expectation of privacy in the most personal of settings [...] was violated by government overreach and intrusion by the mayor and city council of Charlotte" while promoting that exact same violation himself.
  • Lack of compassion for the many trans people who will now be forced to use the wrong bathroom or else risk legal consequences. Laws like this also serve to reinforce the popular (but wrong) idea that trans people are somehow a threat, which leads to increased violence and discrimination against them.

(It should be noted that all the evidence I'm aware of suggests that gendered bathrooms aren't even necessary in the first place, and that the Republicans are therefore going in exactly the wrong direction with this, but that's another discussion.)

MN

Further Reading

Footnotes

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ “"This is a common sense bill that protects the privacy expectations of our citizens while clarifying local authority," said Republican Representative Paul Stam.” -- this bill does the exact opposite of what "common sense" would suggest, and local authorities are now left with major ambiguities to deal with. In short, what Stam said is exactly wrong.
  3. ↑ http://www.hrc.org/blog/five-things-to-know-about-north-carolinas-newest-radical-anti-lgbt-law
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