Why Conservatives Increasingly Care Where You Pee
South Dakotans narrowly missed the detonation of a precedent-setting bomb on Super Tuesday when Gov. Dennis Daugaard vetoed a bill that would have been devastating for the transgender community. HB 1008, which was designed to “restrict access to certain restrooms and locker rooms in public schools,” would have required that students use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their “biological sex.” It’s just one of a number of so-called bathroom bills that target the trans community by forcing people into unsafe spaces that don’t align with their gender — a form of political dogwhistle that relies on fear of the trans community to whip up sentiments among conservatives.
With trans visibility growing year by year, so too are bathroom bills. Republicans aiming to capture or retain Congressional seats in this year’s election are particularly focused on promoting such bills in their home states. These lawmakers, known for campaigning on “values” platforms, are appealing to a deeply conservative base, and they’re set to do real damage to the trans community. (It should be noted that Gov. Daugaard didn’t veto the South Dakota bill out of concern for transgender rights — he was worried the bill might expose the state to litigation.)
Though it’s only March, South Dakota isn’t the only state peeking into children’s pants. An Illinois legislator just introduced a similar bill, another hit the Virginia House in January, and Oklahoma has joined the parade as well. After Washington’s Human Rights Commission determined that transgender people should be allowed to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender, the state Senate narrowly defeated a bill that attempted to repeal the ruling.
This continues a trend we saw last year, when Nevada, Minnesota, Kentucky, Wyoming, Florida, Missouri, Wisconsin, Colorado and Indiana all considered bathroom bills; thankfully, they all failed to pass, but some — if not all — of those states will likely reintroduce their bills in 2016. And prior to 2015, trendsetters Arizona and Utah also weighed bathroom bills. In some cases, the legislation died at the 11th hour, like it did last week in South Dakota, illustrating how tight the fight is in many states. Being able to pee, which should be a fundamental right, is dangerous and now potentially illegal in some parts of the U.S. — like in Houston, where a controversial equal-protection ordinance failed to pass when brought to voters in November 2015.
Some cities have also been battling it out over bathrooms, with some extending protections to the trans community and others trying to strip such protections; for instance, Charlotte, North Carolina, recently extended bathroom accommodations. And then there’s the ongoing suit in Virginia debating a student’s right to use the bathroom in peace. Conservatives have been at the forefront of conversations about such legislation, rabidly opposing greater civil rights protections while promoting bills that would limit them, warning that “men” will be in the bathroom with little girls and raising the specter of rape and assault in women’s bathrooms in transmisogynistic moves that deny the humanity of trans women, reducing them to a “men in dresses” stereotype. To date, there have been no cases in which a transgender person has committed assault in a bathroom — but 70 percent of trans people have experienced harassment and assault when trying to pee.
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