Your Papers Please.

I remember that phrase from Fireside Theater, I believe it was from “Don’t Crush that Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers” but it is no laughing matter in Arizona today where a state legislator wants to pass a law requiring you to use the bathroom of the gender listed on your birth certificate.

Transgender People Force Debate on Bathroom Use
By Cristina Silva Associated Press
Phoenix March 20, 2013 (AP)

Arizona lawmakers have jumped in to the national debate over the rights of transgender people with a bill being debated Wednesday that would make it illegal for people to use public restrooms not associated with their birth gender.

Advocates say the measure would be the toughest standard in the nation for transgender people and bathroom use, requiring Arizona residents to use the restroom of the sex listed on their birth certificate. One local TV station has dubbed it the "Show Me Your Papers Before You Go Potty" bill, a reference to the Arizona Legislature's sweeping 2010 immigration law.

This is a punitive response to Phoenix passing a gender identity and expression non-discrimination law.

The Transgender Law Center had this to say…

How would such a law be enforced? By every overzealous restroom patron, security guard, business owner or mere passerby who decides that someone they see entering a restroom doesn’t conform to their notions of how a “man” or “woman” should look and complains to police. In other words, trans men, women and children, butch lesbians, feminine gay men, and straight, cisgender people who violate societal gender norms in some way can be harassed to prove their right to do what every other citizen takes as a given – the right to use a restroom for its intended purpose without harassment.

I’m not a lawyer, but from what I understand of the law, discrimination is when you do something different for one group of people who are in a protected class that is different from the non-protected class. So the way I see it, is if you do not ask everyone for their birth certificates it is violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and possible the 14th Amendment.