Utah House passes transgender bathroom ban
Utah’s Republican-controlled House voted Friday to pass a sweeping proposal to keep transgender people out of restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity in taxpayer-funded buildings, sending the measure to the state’s majority GOP Senate for consideration just three days after the start of the session.
House Bill 257 aims to prohibit individuals from using gender-designated facilities that differ from their sex assigned at birth in government buildings, correctional facilities and domestic violence shelters unless they have undergone a transition-related surgery and legally amended the sex on their birth certificate.
The proposal would require new government buildings to include single-occupant restrooms and changing rooms while existing ones must be studied to assess “the feasibility of retrofitting or remodeling” facilities to improve privacy.
...
The bill, if passed, would make Utah the third state to adopt explicit restrictions on transgender bathroom use in buildings other than schools. A Florida law passed last year prevents transgender people from using facilities consistent with their gender identity in all government-owned buildings, and a North Dakota law restricts bathroom use in correctional facilities.
Uhhh, once the door closes, HOW DO YOU KNOW IF A TRANS PERSON IS IN THERE?
Wouldn’t surprise me if they tried sending people with mirrors on sticks into johns, to save the children of course.
They don't give a shit about logistics of this, they just care that people who vote for them will cheer.
And they might get a chance to punish a Trans person.
The glow and glittersplosion
Signed, a trans person
Bruh, when do I get those powers?
They don't. They're just going to use it as an excuse to harass and persecute a whole bunch of masculine-looking cis women.
There’s a post I saw about a transgender (I forgot which way let’s just say woman) went into the men’s bathroom and someone (or multiple people) thought she was a trans man and beat her up, DESPITE HER DOING EXACTLY WHAT THE LAW SAID.
My guess is some random transphobe calls the police on you and that's that
Republicans smashing through the wall like Kool-aid man OH YEAH!
The secret is that it primarily targets low-passing trans people, which are the ones they dislike the most.
Have you never been in a public bathroom in your life?
I was going to go through YEARS of expensive and intense therapy JUST so I could go into the girl's bathroom and RAPE people but I've been FOILED by this new law!
Does making all bathrooms unisex help anyone? Or is that just dumb? I mean the plumbing from the toilets all go to the same place.
It sure doesn't help men. Have you seen the lines at the women's bathroom?
You ever seen the opposite? I went to see a MMA fight and the line was ridiculous! There was no line for the women's restroom. lol
Sorta is. They got family bathrooms now in a lot of places. Which is easier if you have small kids.
In every state that passes a bathroom ban I think we should just piss on Republican lawmakers cars instead.
We gotta go somewhere, fuckers.
I couldn't agree more. I'm so sick of the projection from the right. Just because you're a disgusting pervert doesn't mean everyone else is!
If it looks like a man, sounds like a man, and pees like a man, it does not belong in the women's restroom! Trans men look like men, sound like men, and sometimes even pee like men and this bill will force them to pee in women's restrooms! If you want to keep bearded people out of the women's restroom, you should have voted against this bill.
The law is dumb. But it does exclude those that have undergone transition.
not every trans person gets genital surgery, in fact the majority don't. additionally, in many states your birth cert can't be amended so then not even everyone who's had genital reassignment may use the restroom legally. that bit is there specifically to make it sound halfway reasonable to the uninformed who think transition is a surgery.
The comment I responded to said "and pees like a man", which is why I pointed out the exclusion.
Whilst I am admittedly ignorant to transition definitions and American law I'm still able to sympathise on how trans people are seemingly being targeted for no reason other than political BS.
I don't understand the logic behind it. Who cares what sex people are under their clothes. What do they think is happening in the restrooms that needs fixing?
They don't think anything needs fixing. They're just trying to break shit.
Didn't know that. TIL
I'm not gonna cut my dick off to go to the right bathroom wtf
Everyone involved in passing this law should be barred from working in government. We're facing an existential crisis from climate change, an ongoing gun violence crisis, mounting wealth inequality, rising right wing extremism that's already reached coup levels, and more, and this is what they're spending time on?
At least three republicans have some tattered remains of a soul, maybe.
Let me take this time to remind all of you that Jury Nullification is an unavoidable part of our legal process. If you're on the jury, you can give any verdict you want. You don't have to show your work! So that means you can say "Not Guilty" for any old reason.
Now, this can be used for Evil, like a southern jury not convicting a white man for murdering a black man. But it can also be used for good! You can nullify laws that are unjust. If someone is being charged for marijuana crimes, for an unrelated example, you can just say Not Guilty. They can't do anything to you.
So go forth and nullify, friends, any and all unjust laws. Tell your friends.
Do it.
But be quiet about it. Talking about it in the courthouse can get you thrown off the jury or into a bunch of legal bullshit.
A guide to jury nullification, which you can follow or not. I ain't your papa.
My first instinct is to tear apart the logic of this, because this wildly doesn't even adress the lived reality of many trans people. I pass as a cis woman and I can't remember the last time I was misgendered, but I also am not getting surgery. Unless they start doing genital checks at the door, I don't see how this would even affect me? Now I know I'm privileged for that, I'm just calling attention to an arbitrary metric that SURGEY makes using my bathroom acceptable, but it's the only metric cis bigots can even comprehend.
But I know logic isn't the point, hatred is the point. Congrats Utah. You put meaningless discrimination on the books. Hate you too buddy.
The new genital scanner tech proposed by silicon valley start up, shit-right, will allow public restrooms to determine who can and can't use the bathroom within a 99.9% degree of certainty according to company spokesperson. With the use of AI enabled 3d scanners and cloud based large data set machine learning you will never have to worry about the gender of a person in the stall next to you again. A short 30 minute 3d scan will be taken by trained technicians, uploaded to the secure off-site cloud computing server where shit-rights AI advisor will analyze and determine the gender of the bathroom user within a 5 minute window. Finally a safe and non-humiliating way to use the bathroom. In case anyone hasn't seen it adultSwim did something similar back in the day.
Focusing on the real issues, yes indeed. Uh-huh.
So, I guess, instead of his and hers, they just make a bunch of individual rooms? No gender bathrooms, just like you have at home. I mean, that would solve all the problems right there.
It would likely cause problems for the Utah House because it might force them to actually do their jobs instead of fixate on culture war bullshit.
gay bars are light years ahead of everywhere else on this issue. there are two bathrooms. you pick one, go in, do your business, and hopefully wash your hands. and if you cause trouble you get your ass kicked because it's not cool with anyone.
Maybe in your home
The thing that scares me about these laws being passed is that they serve to embolden those who want to hurt us. MAGA uses this as a hate feedback loop. They are winning. Any anti-LGBT bill that passes is a W for them and a step closer to the edge of society for us. It’s not going to stop.
The thing that scares me about these laws is it serves as a blanket permission to use the power of the state to harass anyone who is gender nonconforming for simply going to the bathroom.
Edit: And having to know the patchwork of discriminatory laws for anywhere I have to go in the country I live in is tiring as hell too.
Turn it around on them. Make them show you their genitals before they go in the bathroom. Then have them arrested for showing you their genitals.
Yes, I see no ways that a trans person asking to see peoples' genitals in a public restroom in a jurisdiction that is hostile to trans people could backfire.
Nah. This is a job for whites looking cis ally.
Get some humongous intimidating gym bros to block the door and tell the tiny weak politicians that is they can't beat them at arm wrestling to go use the women's.
It very well could stop, though. The MAGA movement is on life support. Republicans are losing state-wide elections and referendums. They’re losing previously red states and gaining none in return. In November, we have a chance to reelect a President who they call senile. One more loss to the guy who, in their minds, doesn’t even know where he is, would be the end of the national MAGA movement. But if they win, then it’s time to start panicking. Now is the time to organize against Trump
Not until we strangle the last king with the entrails of the last priest
Oh I just read an article about a pastor getting into trouble for helping the homeless. Now I get to read an article about the Mormo--sorry Utah government using it's power to attack the LGBT for existing. This is more aligned with my preconceived notions about Christianity.
Well, all 6 transgendered people in Utah gets fucked.
Congrats you fucking backwards ass state for spending so many resources ensuring you punish a handful of people and leaving school children, vets, homeless, and other people to die.
Oh good. SLC is full of homeless folks struggling to survive, I’m glad our government is doing the important work to make sure bathrooms are safe.
The Supreme Court told Indiana they weren't going to hear such bullshit.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-snubs-fight-over-transgender-student-bathroom-access-2024-01-16/
I know that case was about schools, but it doesn't look like SCOTUS would care to hear this one either. In other words, if a lower court shoots this down, SCOTUS might say, "Not going to hear it. Lower court's ruling stands."
Well that's a nice silver lining...
But we'll have to check your birth certificate and genitals upon entry
Fair point...
Ya know, in '94 I was stationed in Korea, they had bars off base that catered to us military, and they had "juicy girls", which were basically just women who went around looking for simps to buy them an orange juice for $20 (and they were pretty successful at it).
Anyways, most of the bars had one bathroom. You'd go in there and use the urinal and occasionally one of the girls would walk right in and use the stall.
It was weird as hell, but only once... After the initial "wtf" time, it was just meh, whatever, the OB beer's cheap enough :)
It's not actually that serious...
When they say taxpayer funded do they mean state buildings? Under federal law this is discrimination and couldn't apply to federal buildings.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Utah’s Republican-controlled House voted Friday to pass a sweeping proposal to keep transgender people out of restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity in taxpayer-funded buildings, sending the measure to the state’s majority GOP Senate for consideration just three days after the start of the session.
The proposal would require new government buildings to include single-occupant restrooms and changing rooms while existing ones must be studied to assess “the feasibility of retrofitting or remodeling” facilities to improve privacy.
Utah Republican Rep. Kera Birkeland, the bill’s primary sponsor in the House, argued this week that the measure is necessary to increase privacy and protect women and children from “bad actors.”
“We still have deep concerns that the proposed legislation will place transgender Utahns at risk in public bathrooms,” Equality Utah, a statewide LGBTQ advocacy group, wrote Friday in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Four states — Kansas, Montana, North Dakota and Tennessee — have similar laws on the books, which LGBTQ rights groups have argued broadly allow discrimination against transgender people.
In a statement following Friday’s vote, Utah Democratic Party Chair Diane Lewis called the passage of House Bill 257 “a shameful, discriminatory attack on a community that is already extremely marginalized and vulnerable.”
The original article contains 579 words, the summary contains 205 words. Saved 65%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Thank you for clogging up the Supreme Court with another reason to say no. Religion does not dictate everyone’s lives. Even worse that no religion actually has any word to say on the subject. Dumb shit Nazis will have to cry another day.
The first amendment is getting torn to shreds
Then its time to exercise the 2nd
When you’re too weak and scared to do the hard, dirty shadow work, rely on othering.
will governor cox remain consistent and veto this one too?
In the years that have passed since bathroom bills started surfacing, what has the DNC done to counteract and protect the rights of trans individuals?
Democrats don't like admitting that they consider the filibuster more important than human rights in all cases.
They use the filibuster as a shield to prevent progress, another one of their rotating villains when they don't have an actual one to blame
Isn't this common sense? I mean, I have an 8 year old daughter, I don't want her in a restroom with some MAN who identifies as a woman. That's just ridiculous.
That's not the way trans identification works.
By your logic, you would be totally OK forcing people like Buck Angel to use womens restrooms: