Here’s a little bit of good news. Well, I suppose it’s bad news that the PC crowd got as far as they did with this bill. But at least it was defeated, even if by only one vote.
NYCF: On June 8, 2010, by the narrowest of margins (12-11), the New York State Senate Judiciary Committee voted to reject a bill known as the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA or the “Bathroom Bill”).
This piece of legislation (S2406 Duane) would open all public accommodations, including restrooms, high school locker rooms, health clubs, dorm rooms and other single sex residential facilities (like homeless and family violence shelters) to both biological genders, dependent upon whether or not an individual chooses to identify his or herself as the opposite sex (i.e. cross-dressers or transvestites).
New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms’ (NYCF) Executive Director, Rev. Jason J. McGuire, made the following comments: “As a pro-life, Christian organization, NYCF upholds the inherent value and worth of all people – including persons who identify as transgendered. However, there is simply no need to provide special rights and protections to individuals who choose to dress or identify themselves as members of the opposite sex.”
“Under the legislation, any man could legally gain access to facilities reserved for women and girls simply by indicating, verbally or non-verbally, that he inwardly feels female at the moment. There is no way to distinguish between someone suffering from what the American Psychological Association calls ‘Gender Identity Disorder’ and a sexual predator looking to exploit this law,” McGuire continued.
Pardon my French, but I’m so sick of this PC crap. Don’t women and girls have the right to use public restrooms without worrying about perverts using this law as a way to gain entry into those restrooms? If a true transgender wants to use the restroom of his or her choice, chances are nobody will know the difference. The worst part of this story – I saw it mentioned on a message board and had to google the law to find out about it. No news coverage. How typical.
Tags: bathroom bill, Duane, GENDA, new york, S2406, Senate Judiciary Committee
My gosh, are New Yorkers stark raving mad to elect people to write these bills, and vote in such a periously close vote? If this had passed, how fast do you think tourism would take a dive? I’m guessing pretty quickly.
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I agree with you, Maggie. Unfortunately, this apathetic attitude seems to predominate when there are no incidents of terrorism. I work in the security field and for most people security measures are seen as more of an inconvenience than a protection measure. It isn’t until something happens that they see the benefits of those security measures. Of course, after they’ve done an end-run around those security measures, these same people ask why we (the security professionals) didn’t protect them. Really??
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It appears you didn’t even read the abstract of the bill. It gives transgenders the rights you’ve enjoyed likely near your whole life. The right to not be discriminated over gender identity. To not be fired at will because if your gender identity, to not be denied housing or evicted over your gender identity, to not be denied education or loan over your gender identity. Or do you find the idea of firing a black man from his job solely on the basis that he is black? Because right down to it there isn’t much difference.
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It’s funny though – in the 12 states and over 100 cities and counties that have similar or identical laws, they don’t have those problems.
In fact, the proposed law said nothing about restrooms. It covered employment, provision of loans, that kind of thing. The same language that’s in the Civil Rights Act 1964, the one that says you can’t discriminate based on sex. Or do you think that means that either sex can use any restroom?
This “Bathroom bill” stuff is sheer scare-campaign nonsense by those who don’t like transgendered people.
You know the same arguments were used 8 years ago, when Gays were given the legal protections that Trans people would have been given by this law? Trans – and Intersexed people too, those born with “natural variations” (to be PC), “birth defects” (to be non-PC) or “Perverted Freaks” (to be very non-PC) with bodies not quite 100% male nor 100% female.
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Give us a break please….
It’s not a gay issue, gay men certainly do not want to use the ladies room.
Of course “T “people have bona fide issues and have been dealing with them for years with doctor’s letters, etc. Gender dysphoria has long been recognized in NY. For example legitimate pre ops can get new drivers licenses . Yes therere issues that need addressing BUT there can be protection against firing of T folks etc. without all this absurd bathroom nonsense.
This idiotic law goes WAY beyond any legitimate issue to protect true T people. Most transvestites are HETEROSEXUAL MEN and should not be allowed into the ladies room, Worse all a pedophile has to do is cross dress and he now has legal access to the girls’ bathrooms.
I am sure no responsible T person would want to see that happen,
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Trash. As a near-passing trans girl I could be arrested for using a public female restroom facility. An equally scary idea is what might happen if I find the wrong person in a males restroom. Would it be funny if I got raped? Is rape funny to you? Is murder funny to you? Do the individual struggling as gender identity issues really need to be put into more difficult situations by preventing them from having the basic rights that every other human in this country enjoys?
How would you feel if your boss fired you simply because you were black, or a woman, or gay, or catholic. Is that fair? Should that be allowed? Because if I can be denied on a loan or an apartment lease simply because I don’t conform to the binary idea of gender then why should a gay person have any more rights for not subscribing to the binary idea of sexuality, or a black person for having different color skin? Or a catholic for having faith?
You’re worried about the hypothetical side effects fear mongers peddle to push their narrow minded rhetoric against the trans community now that the majority has seen through their anti-gay propaganda. If you really think a cop is going to let “the bad guy” go because he says he feels like a girl on the inside, without verifying that this isn’t a ploy, you’re sadly mistaken. I have a feeling these sorts of things will be terribly obvious, and the idea that a whole group of people should be oppressed over your nonsense “think of the children” bologna, perhaps you should give up some of your rights first to “think of the children”. I’m sure there are plenty of things we can strip from you that will better protect the sanctity of childhood. Perhaps it should be a felony to use vulgar language. 3 months for a good ol’ H-E-”double hocky sticks” and 9 months if the dreaded “ass” slips out in earshot of a person under the age of 18. I mean we have to think of the children right? Other peoples rights don’t matter any, right?
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I love the meme about how ‘perverts’ would ‘take advantage’…
Could it be projection of a secret desire to be a woman? Maybe — but then again, maybe not. I suspect most perverts (the ones interested in females in ‘that way’,) are deathly afraid of being seen as/taunted as being ‘effeminate’. And your garden-variety swishy gay-guy has no interest in the opposite sex, so women and girls are actually safe from those pervert freaks (and the hyper-masculine gay-guys who love the swishy gay-guys.)
It’s really hard to find a pervert that’s comfortable with saying he ‘feels like a woman today’, much less willing to spend the time and risk the necessary exposure to procure dresses/shoes, makeup and a wig, and then spend several hours attempting to transform himself into a man-in-a-dress — an object of ridicule — just to gain entry to a ladies room somewhere. As Zoe pointed out, in all the places that already ban this sort of discrimination, unless it was an elaborate event staged to ‘prove a point’ (Montgomery County, Maryland,) there isn’t even one case of a man using the ‘felt like a woman today’ defense.
Rather I think it’s the need of Right Wing Authoritarians to create and maintain strawman ‘bad people’ to populate those roles their worldview.
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Agree. Agree. Agree.
A rapist is just going to push the door open and rape. He’s not going to go through all this stupid extra effort that really wouldn’t change anything. If he get’s caught, charged with rape. If he gets away, charge him with rape when he gets caught. If he doesn’t get caught, having the “right” to have been in the bathroom isn’t going to change much.
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God Bless the NY senators with common sense to stop that awful ‘Bathroom Bill’ which would allow any male cross dressing access to the ladies’ room for voyeurism or worse.
How could our so many in the NY legislature even seriously consider such a ridiculous bill???
What is wrong with these idiots and how the heck did they get nominated and elected to public office???
What the heck ever happened to responsible media in this nation ???
Don’t any of them have preteen and teen age daughters?
If the general public does not start taking an interest in politics and stop the bizarre special interests from dictating policy, things are going to go from bad to insane worse!
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Because there has never been a case of a man, you know, just walking into a ladies room to rape a woman. Because this bill would change so much. The men would be lining up to get their rape on since it’d be “okay” for them to go into the ladies room.
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I’m a transsexual myself, been transitioning for the last 2 years, been on hormones for the last year. Doing my RLE (Real life Experience) phase of my transition. Which means I live 24/7 which for me is normal. I am forced into using the Men’s rest room which is a very degrading and discriminatory experience and in some ways a very dangerous prospect for me. Cause the same people who do not understand us, who believe the the hateful words of the so called moral right are the same people who will most likely beat me to a pulp cause of who I am, a woman using a men’s room.
There are 12 other states that have bathroom bills that allow Transsexual people (BothTranswomen and Transmen) the rights and protections they deserve. And amazingly there has not been one case that I know of where a girl was molested or kidnapped by a trans person. In most case’s it is a family member and they molest them in the privacy of their own homes, or it’s a priest who molests them at church. And we listen to the moral right here, something is wrong.
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It isn’t transgenders we’re worried about. If you look like a woman and walk into a women’s room, who will stop you? The stalls are closed. Nobody will know. Why do you need a law that will make it easier for weirdos to prey not only on you, but the rest of us? I don’t want men in the women’s room. Period.
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I’d like to not worry about losing my job or apartment because I’m transgender. Is that not a fair expectation?
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“And we listen to the moral right here, something is wrong”. I couldn’t agree with you more Kim. It’s you. It’s not because who you are or what you’ve chosen to do or be. I personally couldn’t care less. But what I do care about are people like you, using their differences to gain special favor or “rights” that aren’t extended to everyone else. “Moral right”, who knows, but are you advocating immorality? Be who you want to be, do what you want to do, just don’t expect me to support special rules, guidelines, legislation or suppressive PC censorship lexicon censorship as tools to restrict my freedoms, asserting you and your agenda as victims of unfairness and oppression. Treating groups differently is the ultimate unfairness and tool for the opportunistic politician and idealogue to use to drive wedges in a culture for control and political gain. Special rules for special people is not the idea of America as we are all unique and special as individuals in some way. We should all be treated and protected equally under the laws of our nation and to do any different is unfair and unjust for your fellow citizen.
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This bill should have been laughed out of the room and flushed down the nearest gender-specific comode. I’m surprised that there were even 11 votes FOR this junk bill. Law or not, if a man goes into the women’s rest room while a family member or loved one is in there, I would most certainly be in fear for her safety and act accordingly to protect her from harm. There is no legitimate reason for a REAL man needs to go into a women’s rest room.This type of law could only have been authored by a prospective pedophile or other sexual predator. It really opens the door for sexual predators to verbalize that they “feel like a female” today (double-meaning intended). Shame on you!
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This was never about “special rules” or about bathrooms at all. This was about trans people’s having the same rights as everyone else. That would be the right to go to work, to rent or buy a home, and to use public spaces in the same way that everyone else does. When a sexual predator uses any law to molest someone, then that’s not okay. But using the example of a sexual predator to deny trans people the chance to get legal protection from being thrown out of their homes or being fired just for being trans (something that they don’t currently have) is not okay. That’s not a special right, that’s the right to be treated like everyone else. With fairness and respect.
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For those who can’t see passed the “Bathroom Bill” moniker and it’s misleading intention, GENDA is short for Gender Employment Non-Discrimination Act. I never knew “Employment Non-Discrimination” had anything to do with bathrooms.
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If a law like this passes, we should all start to use the ladies’ room. I’ll stand there with my beard telling them I’m really a woman. Watch what an outcry THAT causes from justifiably enraged women.
Some people apparently think it should be ILLEGAL for a woman to not have a strange men around when she changes a tampon.
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