Peeing In Peace.

When travel around the country there are a number of anti-trans legislation that place barriers in front of us, one of them is a safe place to pee*.

I'm a transgender woman in America. I shouldn't have to live in fear
CNN
Opinion by Jennifer Williams
December 15, 2021


Five years ago, my wife, children and I planned an Easter week trip to Charlotte, North Carolina, to visit some of our relatives. What should have been a relatively smooth road trip from New Jersey to North Carolina, however, soon turned into a highly precarious situation.

Just a few weeks before our trip, North Carolina passed House Bill 2, which required everyone in the state to use public restrooms based on the sex assigned to them at birth. What that meant for me -- an American transgender woman -- was that I would have to break this law in order to use the women's restroom at any of the stops we visited in the state.

As we crossed the border from Virginia, my wife and I both grew uneasy. We still had several hours of interstate driving in North Carolina ahead of us. Knowing that I could be arrested if I used a women's restroom, my wife found a downloadable Google Map called "Safe Bathrooms," which the spouse of a transgender person created so other transgender people could find a safe restroom to use in a supportive, private business.

Yeah, I had the same experience when I went down to Asheville NC for my nephews wedding, once I got past the Mason-Dixon Line my anxiety levels increased, I knew that I was safe around the interstates but once I got off the highways it was iffy.

As of this writing, only 21 states have full nondiscrimination protections for their LGBTQ citizens, according to Freedom for all Americans, a bipartisan campaign to secure nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans. That means over half the states in our nation lack comprehensive LGBTQ protective laws regarding public accommodations, employment and housing.
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The US House of Representatives has already taken the first step, passing the Equality Act in February of this year. The Equality Act would update our federal civil rights laws to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in their daily lives -- be it in access to health care, restaurants and shops or housing. House Democrats were even joined by several Republicans, indicating that both parties may be moving closer toward acceptance, affirmation and celebration of our talents and abilities -- regardless of our sexual orientation or gender identity.

Now, the US Senate must take up the bill. And if it cannot do so by the end of 2021, it should prioritize it in 2022. If Republicans in the US Senate need any persuading, they should consider this year's Public Religion Research Institute report, which found that over three-quarters (76%) of Americans "favor laws that would protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans from discrimination in jobs, housing, and public accommodation." That number includes 62% of Republicans like me, demonstrating that this issue is one that aligns with conservative values like freedom and individual liberty.

Ain't no way that the Senate is going to pass the bill.

Polls do not mean anything to the Republicans, all they care about is their white supremacist base. They will not do anything to antagonize them.

All Americans, regardless of who they are, who they love or where they live, deserve and need access to the same civil liberties. Congress can make this a reality by coming together to pass bipartisan LGBTQ nondiscrimination legislation, providing long-overdue protections in every state for every American.

Nope no way.

Here in Connecticut when the non-discrimination bill was first introduced in 2007 the bill in the Senate pass with bi-partisan support but by the time it passed in 2011 and was signed into law the vote was right down party lines. The political climate now is worsts that it was in back then.

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*There is a booklet entitled Peeing In Peace, when it was written in the early 2000’s it was a lot different world, now we live in a much more hostile world where even when we have laws protecting us there still is violence against us.