The Scarlet Letter #2

The Republican controlled legislature is doubling down, instead of backing off from HB2 they are adding even more outrageous legislation.

North Carolina’s Anti-Transgender Bathroom Law Just Got Worse
As if North Carolina’s legislation wasn’t idiotic enough, lawmakers are toying with a provision that would give only a few more trans people access to public restrooms.
The Daily Beast
By Samantha Allen
June 29, 2016

North Carolina lawmakers may try to create a new type of government documentation called a “certificate of sex reassignment” to allow a tiny minority of otherwise-banned transgender people to pee in public restrooms. What could possibly go wrong?
[…]
But a leak of the draft reveals that they are still dreaming up horrific new ways to restrict public bathroom access.

“An individual who was born in another state or territory of the United States that does not provide a mechanism for amending a current certificate of birth or issuing a new certificate of birth to change the sex of an individual following sex reassignment surgery … may request a certificate of sex reassignment from the State Registrar,” the draft reads.
[…]
If the proposed draft becomes final and goes into effect, North Carolina would also further reinforce the bizarre double standards it already imposes on its transgender residents depending on their state of birth.

Under HB 2, for example, a transgender woman born in Tennessee who has undergone SRS cannot legally use a public women’s restroom in North Carolina because the law measures her gender by her birth certificate. But a transgender woman born in California who has not undergone SRS can legally use the ladies’ room provided she has changed her birth certificate back home.

In addition to California, Connecticut and five other states allow a trans person to change their birth certificate without surgery.

This is not the first time that we saw a Republican legislator require us to register, it happened right here in Connecticut. At that time I wrote…

The Scarlet Letter

Do you remember the book “The Scarlet Letter”? Where Hester Prynne had a daughter out of wedlock and the daughter carries the sin and guilt of the mother. This amendment that a Republican has introduced for the gender inclusive non-discrimination bill, HB6599 is our Scarlet Letter.

"Sec. 501. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2011) Any person holding a motor vehicle operator's license whose gender-related identity is different from that traditionally associated with the person's physiology or assigned sex at birth shall notify the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles of such identity and the commissioner shall indicate such identity in the electronic record maintained by the commissioner pertaining to such person's operator's license. "

This amendment is hateful! It is punitive. It serves no purpose other than to cast stigma and to humiliate transgender people. It is meant to marginalize and oppress the trans-community. This label on our driver license will always stick with us where ever we go. Whenever we go for a job interview and they do a background check it will be there. Whenever we apply for a loan, it will be there. Whenever we rent an apartment, it will be there. This will be a Scarlet “T” branded on our foreheads.

I am going to write something that I have never written before and I have avoided using it as a comparison because of the horrors that are associated with it, it is beyond comparison. However, this amendment comes so close to how the Holocaust began when the Gays and Transgender people were forced to wear Pint Triangles. What is next Senator Witkos, what is next?

And now we see this idea resurfacing in North Carolina. The Republicans say their goal is to get government off of our backs but in reality they are doing the opposite they want government to check what is between our legs, they want women to have a virginals ultrasounds before having an abortion, and now for trans person to register for a government database.