Your Papers Please!

As more and more anti-trans legislation is passed we might be hearing “Your papers please” more often as more laws are passed and we try to go to the bathroom.

Anti-LGBT legislation gaining traction in the US, again
The Hill – Opinion
By Manos Antoninis
May 17, 2021


2021 is set to become “the worst year” for state legislative attacks against LGBTQ people in history.

Our new paper, released with IGLYO, an LGBTQI youth organization, cited the 2017 GLSEN School Climate survey showing that two-thirds of students in the United States had not been exposed to representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people and their history in school. New bills in the pipeline this year risk blindsiding LGBTQ students even more.
[...]
Other legal forms of exclusion from education for LGBTQ students are being actively sought. In North Dakota, the governor signed a House bill into law last month, which will allow student groups that receive state funding through their universities to turn away LGBTQ students “under the guise of free speech.” In Tennessee, House bill 1182, which aims to prevent transgender people from using bathrooms aligning with their identity, has gone up to the governor for approval.

But there is push back to these bills and people are taking notices of the hatefulness of these laws.

These bills will have far-reaching implications for children and young people’s lives. The United States’ leading child health and welfare groups, representing more than 7 million youth-serving professionals and more than 1000 child welfare organizations, have just released an open letter calling for lawmakers in states across the country to oppose these bills. It cited the need for all children to be given equal protection.
[…]
It is no secret that there are entrenched divides in public opinion in the United States over such issues. Yet, there has to be hope in the results of a recent PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll, which found that two-thirds of Americans are opposed to laws that would limit transgender rights. Perhaps the real hope, which may also be the fear driving the creation of many of these bills, is that hiding something doesn’t make it stop. There are laws, but there are also inclusive schools, inclusive teachers, welcoming students and inclusive communities that can make the difference. We all have a role to play in not looking away and in fighting unjust exclusion. Every student matters — no matter their identity, background or ability.

But trying to get the Republicans to realize that they are on the wrong side is impossible because they only care about energizing their white supremacist base. Let us face it, the Republicans hate our guts just like they hate foreigners, Blacks and Latinx people, 

From WGHB a PBS station

Speaking of Tennessee where they have along history of segregation…

Tennessee to mandate bathroom signs about transgender use
AP
By Kimberlee Kruesi and Jonathan Mattise
May 18, 2021


NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee will become the first state in the United States to require businesses and government facilities open to the public to post a sign if they let transgender people use multiperson bathrooms, locker rooms or changing rooms associated with their gender identity.

Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill Monday that represents a first-of-its-kind law, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group that decried the bill as discriminatory and said the required signs are “offensive and humiliating.” The law will go into effect July 1.

Lee, who is up for reelection next year, had previously been mum on whether he would sign the bill. Instead, he told reporters earlier this month that he always had “concerns about business mandates” but was still reviewing the bill.
[…]
According to the bill signed Monday, the required sign outside the public bathroom or other facility would say: “This facility maintains a policy of allowing the use of restrooms by either biological sex, regardless of the designation on the restroom.”

However, questions remain about how the law will be enforced and what, if any, consequences will stem from ignoring it. The law doesn’t spell out fines, penalties or any other mechanism to ensure the signs are put up when required.

So what does this remind you of?

Is this the start of the Jim Crow laws? Will we see signed that says “Transgendered Only?"