Arizona legislator proposes anti-transgender bill

[JenniferB]

Kavanagh is from Fountain Hills, where Joe Arpaio lives. That ought to tell you something. It's a town of around 22,000 where over 1/4 of its citizens are retired. It's over 94% white and the average income is $47k/person. The mayor is Linda Kavanagh, so I bet that's the legislator's wife.

All this makes me believe that the rural town is conservative, and the chances of a recall election is slim and none.

Jenny

[Guest]

Fountain Hills is far from rural, it is land locked my the Indian Reservation, Mesa and Scottsdale, It is completely urban even though the residents may think they are an isolated burg. Two main arteries take a huge amount of daily traffic of people that do not live there, so they are not immune to humanity. It used to be an exclusive hot spot, now it is a aging middle class neighborhood. Just a dot on the map. They go potty like the rest of us. That is the first place to flash mob and approach passer-bys to garner support, right in their front yard. In their face. We could put the small back in their small town. Giggle. OK, give me a minute to let the hair on the back of my neck to lower, so I can get down off my soapbox. Hug. JodyAnn

[JenniferB]

The bill passed through the committee after seven hours of deliberation and testimony. It was a direct party line vote.

If this follows the party line. This will become law, and the advances made here in Tucson since '99 will be gone, in spite of the advances in many businesses and with federal employees. Arizona always seems to be moving backwards.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/20130327phoenix-transgender-restroom-bill-clears-house-committee.html

Jenny

[Carolyn Marie]

That's a damned shame. That's all I can say.

Carolyn Marie

[Guest]

That really whizzes in my Cheerios! In either the Ladies or Mens room. Soon, I will be free to leave this state. The end of the school year, a hop, skip and jump through a custody battle and I can leave this barren mental waste land, to take my children away from his tierney. I should not to subject them to people like him. Or maybe move to Fountain Hills to just be a thorn in is his side. Giggle. What to do? What to do? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Every time we just about get good jobs to come to Arizona, cowboys have to show off and have meaningless gunfights at the OK Corral. Then the Employers turn tail and run. Proper cronies can all back slap for a job well done, with their beer goggles on. I think by now, I am close to violating rule something, something in T&C so I will shut up now. Though if I ever meet him in person, I hope it is on a day when my PMS is raging! Cat claws. Jody

PS---I have a dream! Where all trans men and trans women at created as equal! At a little lemonade stand down in Fountain Hills Arizona! I have a dream! Right next to the fountain, spraying on the hour! I have a dream... JA

[Guest JazzySmurf]

It kind of has the feel of the current DOMA fight in the Supreme Court... that they are (potentially) rescinding one extremely specific portion of anti-discrimination bills. This, along with the fact that it looks it may be a state law overruling local ordinances, suggests that there is a decent chance that it will not stand up in court, even if it passes... wait and see

ps: I was just in Phoenix for part of my spring break... at every major intersection, there's (large) shopping centers at nearly every corner!!! I did not realize this until we drove 25 miles (each way) for dinner one night...

[VickySGV]

It is a bit of irony that Dr. Toby Meltzer who is one of the name SRS surgeons here in the U.S. does his surgery there in Arizona. I see a huge problem for the state under the Interstate Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. We do not hear much about that one usually, but try to apply his law to a major truck stop, or to someone providing services to out of state patients of Dr. Meltzer, and it becomes a Federal matter which Arizona has already lost in several areas dating back many years.

[Guest]

This is hypotherical, but what if these phobes had a reality check. If they say we can't be what the medical and academic community say we are, because we are, because of the little twists in their head. They can't really have it both ways to suit their descrimiations. My license says Female, but if they instist I am not, then I can walk around in public with my shirt off. Not in my plans but hypothetical. I can't be charged with indesent exposure, if I can't use the ladies room right? They say I am male? As long as I carry my birth certificate??? *BTW, that protest has been done before, in a public parade in another state*

If the ladies room was filled with the hairy masculine trans men I know, all hanging out doing their nails of any other hygene that other genetic females can do legally. How many othe these families would feel uncomfortable with topless MTFs standing patiently in the hallway for their FTM friends to finish in the ladies room. It would all be legal by their terms? Yet very disturbing none the less. It would be sad to go to these lengths to prove the point, but they need to get a better mentality than old M.A.S.H. re-runs. Yes, I'm still chapped about this one. Jody

[JenniferB]

What else bothers mean about this bill is the fact that it's an emergency amendment, meant to go into effect the moment it is passed. I guess they are afraid that transgender individuals are a huge danger.

And yes, I'm still angry.

Jenny

[Guest Claire-G]

I know this is a serious matter but I can't help thinking will they also make a pee police?

They'll be going around saying: He you there sister what you doing drop you're pants!! eeuh wait brother aarrgh

[Guest Sarah Faith]

What else bothers mean about this bill is the fact that it's an emergency amendment, meant to go into effect the moment it is passed. I guess they are afraid that transgender individuals are a huge danger.

And yes, I'm still angry.

Jenny

Jenny, I completely understand your anger. I get angry every time I see or hear about this kinda stuff. I think to the kind of people that push this crap Transgender people don't really exist, to them we're just perverts waiting in the shadows ready to strike. The mentality is very close to some of the Racist views people held towards people of color when they tried to justify segregation, and it's every bit as dangerous.

I'm really hoping that bill fails to pass.

[Guest]

Brewer supports Obama's medical. Kavanagh has agreed behind closed doors not to try and undermine her if she supports his potty bill. More Arizona dirty polotics. Remember folks, Kavanagh is only concerned with your genatals! Would that define a pervert??? Welcome to Arizona, birth certificate required for restroom use. Please be prepared to hold your water for 325 miles. Are the signs printed yet? Jody

[Guest JazzySmurf]

Hey you guys, for what it's worth, there is some case history with regards to state law trumping city law with respect to LGBT issues: this is the Romer vs. Evans case, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romer_v._Evans

So, even if the amended bathroom bill passes, there is a decent chance that the Supreme Court would be in favor of striking it down.

[Ravin]

Even more on point is Hollingsworth which is IIRC the Prop 8 case. the 9th circuit, which is the one controlling in AZ, basically said once a right is granted, it can't be taken away again. So at least in Phoenix, the court battle could hold out a winner for the anitdiscrimination statute.

The language being used to shield business owners from being subject to antidiscrimination law is very similar to that used when they tried to stop the breastfeeding rights bill that got passed a few years back.

In the mean time, I'd like to see a campaign involving window stickers and listings on sites like safe2pee.org, for businesses to vouch that they won't discriminate based on gender identity, law or no law.

[Guest LizMarie]

The notion of allowing businesses to discriminate without legal repercussion was already tried and failed in the 1960s during the civil rights protests for blacks. I suspect there are numerous ways this law can be challenged but the sad thing is that it will have to be challenged at all, wasting both private money and government money (and time) for something that has no demonstrable value as written.

You also cannot justify discriminating against an entire class of people because some small number have committed offenses, which is yet another of the logical fallacies I seen thrown about by politicians who wish to exclude any class of people, whether ethnic group, racial group, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc.

[Guest Always Good]

That is clearly unconstitutional. There is no way i'm walking around with my birth certificate so i can use the ladies room . Sounds like a sit down strike might be good. Who knows what would be left behind when you stood up.

Hugs,

Charlie

A sit down strike in the ladies room. You're either with us or holding it in. *giggles* *maniacal laughing*

[Ravin]

Birth certificates don't enter into it in the second (current) version of the bill. Originally it wanted to make using the wrong restroom a misdemeanor. This version just explicitly allows business owners to discriminate in access to restrooms based on gender identity. The way it's phrased now, a business owner could disallow someone from using EITHER restroom because they don't like the way they present their gender.

[VickySGV]

The way it's phrased now, a business owner could disallow someone from using EITHER restroom because they don't like the way they present their gender.

Cheap fodder for Federal Interstate Commerce laws to pre-empt.

[Guest Oxygenic]

I hate this state, in so many ways.

I should go up north to Colorado.

[JenniferB]

Here is an interview with the legislature who wrote the bill and a couple transgender advocates, one from the Transgender Law Center. It's a slight bit over 10 minutes so I linked the video.

[Guest Mia J]

Thanks for posting Jenny.

This guy just makes himself sound more and more a bigoted idiot every time he opens his mouth.

Mia

[Guest LizMarie]

Cristan Williams, in the video, is the director of the TG center here in Houston. She's an amazing person to be around.