Oh When Will They Ever Stop?

The Republicans are at it again, this time in Nevada. One Republican couldn’t stir up trouble in her home state so she is stirring up trouble in Nevada.

Nevada Lawmaker Proposes New Anti-Transgender Bill Pushed By Out-Of-State Lobbyist
Think Progress
By Zack Ford
Posted on March 30, 2015

Nevada is the latest state to introduce a bill that would limit how transgender students access bathrooms at school. AB 375, introduced by Assemblywoman Victoria Dooling (R), would require schools to limit restrooms and locker rooms on the basis of “biological sex,” as defined as the “biological condition of being male or female as determined at birth based on physical differences or, if necessary, at the chromosomal level.”

If a student “asserts at school a gender that is different than the pupil’s biological sex,” the bill calls for students to accommodate the student, but “such accommodation must not include access to a school restroom, locker room, or shower designated for use by persons whose biological sex is different from the pupil’s biological sex.” Instead, it suggests they must be limited to “a single-stall restroom, access to a unisex restroom, or controlled use of a faculty restroom, locker room, or shower.”

So who is behind this bill?

Dooling did not respond to a ThinkProgress request for comment, but her office did reveal that she worked directly with a “lobbyist” on the bill. That lobbyist was Karen England of the California-based Capitol Resource Institute. England also did not reply to a request for a comment, but her anti-LGBT reputation is well documented. She was one of the leading opponents of California’s law protecting transgender students from discrimination, co-chairing the coalition that attempted to repeal it — and failed. Not only has she dismissed the very reality of gender identity, but she has told parents to pull their kids from schools to prevent them from learning about LGBT people.

It seems like they try to export their hate from one state to another and each state is trying to one up the other states on who can pass the most draconian laws.

Ms. Keisling on the NCTE blog says we are winning and that is why there are so many anti-trans bills being introduced,

It has finally happened. As a transgender advocate, part of me has always dreaded the day when the right-wing fringe would make fear-mongering about transgender people their latest hobby horse. But this year, proposed bills in Florida, Missouri, Kentucky, and Texas would make it a crime for transgender people to use public restrooms based on who they are, or invite lawsuits against businesses or schools that treat trans people with dignity. On the occasion of this International Transgender Day of Visibility, this is not the kind of visibility we want. These anti-trans bills are part of a broader wave of anti-LGBT legislation, including the “freedom to discriminate” bills we’ve seen in Indiana and Arkansas among other places, but make no mistake, trans people are being targeted by these too.
[…]
So here’s the good news: We’re going to win. These anti-trans bills are happening because we’re winning, not because we’re losing. City councils, school districts, businesses, courts, federal officials—more and more of them are lining up on our side, recognizing that transgender people cannot be equal members of society unless we have the right to live our lives as who we really are. More and more, the media are telling accurate and sympathetic stories about our lives. That kind of progress always brings out a backlash.

What’s more, these bills are probably going nowhere. Every year in every state, there are lots of kooky bills that are introduced bloodless and with no chance to become law, with no one really intending to move them. They are just what are called message bills—attention-seeking publicity stunts. Remember, there are also pro-LGBT bills introduced every year that no one thinks have a chance. And, fortunately in this case, legislation is always much easier to defeat than to pass.

Let’s hope that they are not going anywhere, but in politics nothing is certain. Here in Connecticut we had a backlash bill introduced to strip us of our insurance coverage, the bill didn’t make it out of committee, but that doesn’t mean that they will not try to add it as an amendment.