Two More States Have Raised Gender Non-Discrimination Bill

In New Hampshire and North Dakota there have been gender non-discrimination bills raised in their state legislature. In New Hampshire, it is House Bill 0415, “AN ACT adding certain terms regarding non-discrimination to the laws” and in North Dakota the bill is Senate bill SB 2278. They will have a hard battle ahead to pass the bills because they will be facing strong opposition from the conservative right wing. The opposition will use every dirty trick in the book to defeat these bills.
If they use the same tactics, the conservative far right will use fear of “men in dresses” in bathrooms to scare the voters. The so-called Family Institutes will use the fear of a teacher coming one day dressed as an man and the next dressed as a woman to scare parents.
These things just don’t happen. In states that have gender inclusive non-discrimination laws, there has not been any rapes caused by transgender people, not one! But, that does not stop them from their lies. There are many transgender teachers in the United States and it has not been a problem for them to transition in school. If a school board has a good policy on how a teacher can transition at work, it does not become an issue.
When I was watching the movie “Milk,” I was struck by the fact that back in the late 1970’s the Christian ring wing conservatives used the same fear campaign against lesbians and gays using the bathroom and the teachers issues, with Anita Bryant leading the smear campaign (“in 1978, when California voters rejected Proposition 6, which would have barred gay and lesbians from working in the schools.”[1]). Why are they still using the same tactics, because it works. Back then most people didn’t know anyone who was lesbian or gay, so they were afraid of the unknown.
In the end, these bills will be passed, because people know that it is simple a matter of fairness and equality.

[1] “Harvey Milk, Anita Bryant, and religion”, Posted by Michael Paulson November 25, 2008 10:57 AM