They Are At It Again

People say I pick on Republicans but except for one case anti-trans and anti-LGBT legislation have all been introduced by Republicans.  The Republicans say they are for less regulation and get government out of our lives but it turns out that is not true. They want to control what we do with our bodies.

44 MN House Republicans back ban on transgender employees using the bathroom
The Column
By Andy Birkey
March 21, 2017

A striking fourty-four Republicans have cosponsored a bill in the Minnesota House that would block businesses and other employers from providing gender-neutral restrooms or from enacting policies that allow transgender employees to use appropriate restrooms. The bill, like one introduced in the Minnesota Senate on Friday, amends the Minnesota Human Rights Act, the nation’s first nondiscrimination law barring discrimination based on gender identity.

HF 3374 and its identical counterpart HF 3395 defines “sex” as “A person’s sex is either male or female as biologically defined.” The bill does not mention people who fall outside the male-female binary such as those who are intersex, nor those whose sex designations have been legally changed under Minnesota law.

The bill prohibits employers as well as schools and universities from having gender-inclusive policies. While it allows for single occupancy gender neutral facilities, it would block all-gender restrooms and would prevent transgender people from using the appropriate restroom even if an employer has inclusive policies.

A little background… Minneapolis Minnesota in 1975 was the first place in the U.S. that passed a gender inclusive non-discrimination law and that was followed in 1993 with the state passing a broad sexual orientation non-discrimination law.

 "Sexual orientation" is defined as "having or being perceived as having an emotional, physical, or sexual attachment to another person without regard to the sex of that person or having or being perceived as having an orientation for such attachment, or having or being perceived as having a self-image or identity not traditionally associated with one's biological maleness or femaleness. [My emphases]"Sexual orientation" does not include a physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult."

Do you know how many trans people sexually assaulted a person in a bathroom in all these years? Zero! Not one trans person attacked a person in a bathroom. So why do they need to change the law?

I tell you why… MONEY! VOTES!

They do not care that the law will marginalize us, they do not care if the law increases violence against us, they do not care that we are being killed because it brings campaign donations, it brings in votes from far right religious base.

They say they want to get government off of our backs, but it was a Republican that introduced a bill to require vaginal ultrasounds before terminating a pregnancy. It was a Connecticut Republican who introduced a bill to require an ultrasound test before terminating a pregnancy even if the doctor didn’t think one is necessary.

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Down in North Carolina they are once again trying to repeal HB2.

North Carolina Lawmakers Announce Deal to Repeal ‘Bathroom Bill’
NBC News
By Alexander Smith and AP
March 30, 2017

Lawmakers struck what they heralded as a breakthrough deal late Wednesday with a proposal to repeal North Carolina's controversial "bathroom bill."

The original legislation passed last year prohibits transgender people from using public bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity, and sparked a huge political and financial backlash.

The proposed reversal — which will be debated and voted on Thursday — has incensed gay-rights activists, who want nothing short of an unconditional repeal of the divisive House Bill 2.

But once again the Republicans are only giving lip service to the people because they bill does not repeal HB 2.

This is because the new plan would not cancel out the legislation entirely but replace it with a new law. The new framework would give the state final say over multi-stall restrooms and ensure "women and girls should not have to share bathrooms with men," according to its backers.

Unimpressed, activists alleged the proposal was "simply another version" of the old law, and was merely an attempt by officials to stop the financial hemorrhage sparked by its passing.

The governor ran on repealing HB 2 but he cops out.

Their proposed legislation would have several effects: repeal House Bill 2; leave state legislators in charge of policy over multi-stall restrooms; and put a temporary halt on local governments passing nondiscrimination ordinances until 2020, something they said would allow time for ongoing court cases about transgender issues to play out.

It was one of those ordinances (a law passed by a municipal government) that prompted North Carolina's Republican-controlled legislature to pass House Bill 2 in the first place. Lawmakers said they wanted to stop an ordinance passed in the city of Charlotte allowing transgender people to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity.