Re: The Anti-Trans Bills in some state legislatures.
In my ever continuing efforts to love people more and hurt people less, here's my opinion on the bills in North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, and the thankfully now vetoed bill in Georgia, and any and all such bills that will come up in other states.
This is being written in a park on my walk back from the gym, so please excuse my lack of external links. Should there be a specific question/objection, I'll find a link and supply it.
First, these bills have NOTHING to do with protecting children from molesters, nor with protecting molesters should they be caught. That argument is a smoke screen because there had been ZERO incidents of the examples given until some had kicked up a fervor saying cis (the opposite of trans in scientific circles) people should use the other restroom to prove it's a problem.
Second, there is no way to enforce these bills, and law enforcement agrees with that. You cannot seriously suggest a birth certificate/driver's license/privates check at restrooms because that is simply impossible to do, aside from rights violations inherent in such an undertaking.
Third, the people these bills attack A.) know more about themselves than you do, B) have been confused as the wrong gender for the majority of their life and deserve better, C) literally just want to pee in peace and deserve that right, D) have been peeing in peace with you for years and why is it a problem now, E) deserve more law enforcement funds to investigate and prosecute the times that they've been attacked in restrooms and killed for being themselves, and to reiterate the first point, F) know more about themselves and this issue than every politician and lawmaker, so they should be listened to first and their stories shared.
Fourth, I applaud the two musicians, so far, who have canceled shows in North Carolina and Mississippi and publicly stated that it was because of the injustice of these bills. They join business owners who are protesting with their money in deciding not to encourage such hate filled bills. Those musicians have given up ticket sales, and, perhaps more importantly, started the conversation with their fans that this is something that needs to be corrected. Hopefully this leads to people calling their representatives and starting the process to PROTECT people by removing these bills, instead of attacking them.
Fifth, people should be allowed to use the restroom of their gender, to feel normal and accepted. And since all-gender restrooms ALREADY EXIST in every single house in America, and every place with only a single restroom, and even shared restrooms have cubicles that people already use for privacy, I'm glad to see the move toward more all-gender restrooms.
It's everyone's business when people are attacked, hurt, and killed for being themselves. It's no business of yours, just as it's no business of theirs, how others pee.
Just flush and wash your hands afterwards. :-) /soapbox