This story was originally reported by Kate Sosin by The 19thAnd re -published by the partnership of Rewire News Group with the 19th News Network.
Transgender Texans, activists and even a constable have made comparable arguments time and time again: the state Latest bathroom account Does not make anyone safer.
Dozens of people testified against the bill in the House State Affairs Committee before about 50 local activists organized a sit-in in a Capitol bathroom in contrast to the bill that would block Transmensen to use the bathroom that matches their gender in schools or government buildings.
They were not without their opponents: a man suggested that transgender people work under a similar delusion like those who think they are Jedis, the fictional characters of Star Wars.
“A frog does not become a cat, a cat does not become a dog,” the man reasoned. “A man doesn’t become a woman. That’s not hatred. It’s reality.”
A woman pointed to the ways in which men and women were fundamentally different, not organic, but sanitary.
‘[Women] Don’t get in touch with their bodies when they use the toilet, and men do it, “she said.” I don’t want to touch the same things. They are germs that are packed in clothing. I just don’t want to do that. I am a real woman and I want privacy in changing rooms. “
Although some in the state have argued that the bill is needed to keep Cisgender women safe, others have wondered what threats the bill even tackles.
Travis County Constable Stacy Suits testified against the bill on Friday and noted that he had never encountered a problem outside of a court room in nine years.
“We don’t want to be the toilet political,” he told the committee, adding that he was not sure how he should see who was trans and who was not.
Senate Bill 8 is one of the More than 16 anti-transte bathroom proposals submitted in the legislative power of Texas In the past decade. Although they have never been signed in the law, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott placed a bathroom account on two special session agendas after it has not passed the regular session. SB 8 has already passed the Senate. The counterpart of the house, House Bill 52, which was discussed on Friday, is expected to pass.
Sixty -eight percent of the transgender report According to lawyers for Trans Equality, they have been harassed in public bathrooms, the largest transgender rights group in the country.
“For almost ten years, accounts such as these transgender people have painted as threats, but the truth is that we are those who are consistently attacked and disproportionately affected by violence and hiding places and prisons and then. This bathroom Bigotry does not protect women and girls,” said Raquel Willis, founder of the lawnacy organization.
Willis added that SB 8 repeated the segregationist policy with which her black ancestors were confronted.
“I think of my mother’s story that they are not being served in a restaurant because of her blackness,” she said. “I imagine that the white woman who denied her service would have blocked her out of the toilet at that time.”
SB 8 would also prevent prisons in Texas transgender prisoners in accordance with their gender, a rule that probably violates the Federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, who requires prisons and prisons to place transmeners on a case -by -case basis.
The bill Instourates a fine of $ 5,000 for a first violation and a fine of $ 25,000 for a second.
“I know I am about to get so many phone calls in the next two weeks, and people will say:” Why are you still living there? “”, Andrea Segovia, senior field and policy advisor for the transgender educational network of Texas, a representation of interests. Segovia’s husband and child are both transgender.
“There is a deep pride to be a Texan, regardless of that your state government tries to erase or degrade you or harm people that you love,” she added. “Trans Texans are still really proud to be Texans.”
Two hours after the hearing was postponed, 50 Texans took the Capitol bathroom to show their contempt for the account. About nine of them organized a sit-in in the bathrooms while the rest protested outside the bathrooms.
The action was led by gender liberation movement, who kept a similar protest in Washington last December, DCWhere 15 people were arrested. Friday’s protest closed without arrests, even while demonstrators occupy the bathroom for more than an hour, according to Eliel Cruz, an organizer of the protest.
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