The Bathroom Issue
 

I couldn't find a anything on the bathroom topics thats been going on.

Hope its ok to start one here. :)

Alabama ... seems to be joining NC ....
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/04/a...oom-ordinance/

OXFORD, Ala. — People in an Alabama city who use public restrooms intended for a gender other than what is listed on their birth certificate will be punished under an ordinance officials passed this week.

Oxford City Council President Steven Waits was quoted by news media outlets as saying the ordinance was a response to a new policy announced by Target Corp. last week allowing transgender employees and shoppers to use the restroom that matches their gender identity. There is a Target store in the Oxford Exchange shopping center.

Target representatives did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday. Target officials said on the company’s corporate blog April 19 that its stance on inclusion and equality was reiterated to employees amid heated national debate over laws that LGBT advocates say effectively legalize discrimination against transgender people.

The Oxford ordinance makes it a misdemeanor for a person to use a restroom that doesn’t correspond with their gender at birth. Violators of the ordinance could face a $500 fine or up to six months in jail.

The Washington-based Human Rights Campaign blasted the ordinance, saying it raises a number of privacy concerns and questions about how it will be enforced.

Oxford Police Chief Bill Partridge said the law will be enforced like any other city ordinance, such as noise violations or public indecency.

“If somebody sees something that makes them uncomfortable, they would call the police,” he was quoted by Al.com as saying. “If the person is still there when the officer arrives, the officer has to witness the crime. Then we take down the person’s information, and the person who reported it has to sign out a warrant.”

HRC officials said the ordinance is unprecedented in imposing criminal penalties and the city of roughly 21,000 is the first in the nation to pass this kind of law.

“This ordinance is a shameful and vile attack on the rights and privacy of transgender people,” HRC Alabama State Manager Eva Walton Kendrick said in a statement. “Transgender people are our neighbors, our co-workers and our fellow churchgoers, and every Alabamian has the right to live their lives without fear of discrimination and prejudice.”

© 2016, Associated Press, All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Transgender teen fights back after suspension for using 'wrong' bathroom

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/26/health/sc-transgender-student-bathroom-suspension/

The pep rally was underway as a South Carolina high school student headed to the bathroom. A teacher trailed him. The student is transgender, and she wanted to make sure he used "the right one," he said.

To him, the right one is the boys' bathroom, which he says he has used since seventh grade without incident. Then, in his senior year, school administrators told him he had to use the girls' restroom, he said. They also gave him the option to use the nurse's restroom.

When he exited the bathroom, the teacher did not say anything to him, but he knew from the "exasperated" look on her face that he was in trouble.

The next morning, he was called into the vice principal's office and told he was suspended for one day for using the boys' bathroom.

Andrea: Clink link for rest of article

City: Use bathrooms for biological sex or face jail

http://www.kcra.com/health/city-use-bathrooms-for-biological-sex-or-face-jail/39258464?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm _campaign=kcranews

Transgender people in Oxford, Alabama, could now face six months in jail for using restrooms labeled for the gender with which they identify.

The Oxford City Council passed the ordinance this week after the retail giant Target announced it would allow transgender employees and customers to use the restrooms they feel comfortable with. Target has a store in Oxford.

In the ordinance, the Council says people in public restrooms "do not reasonably expect to be exposed to individuals of the opposite sex while utilizing those facilities."

"The Council further asserts that single sex public facilities are places of increased vulnerability and present the potential for crimes against individuals utilizing those facilities which may include, but not limited to, voyeurism, exhibitionism, molestation and assault and battery," the ordinance states.

The law includes some exceptions, such as for adults accompanying children under age 12.

Those violating the ordinance could face six months in jail or a $500 fine.

Oxford Police Chief Bill Partridge did not return a CNN call for comment. But he told CNN affiliate WBRC the law would be enforced just like any other for a misdemeanor: A person would have to call police to complain, and when police arrive the officer would have to witness the crime.

After that, Partridge said, the person who called in the complaint would have to sign a warrant.

Oxford's new law comes amid a spate of bathroom policies affecting transgender people across the country. But the ordinance does not explicitly mention the term "transgender."

The Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for LGBT rights, lambasted the ordinance.

"This anti-transgender law is unprecedented in its establishment of criminal penalties for violations of the law, and raises a myriad of privacy and legal concerns, including questions about how the law will be enforced," HRC said in a statement.

And the law could affect more people than some realize, HRC Alabama manager Eva Walton Kendrick said.

"Transgender people are our neighbors, our coworkers and our fellow churchgoers," she said, "and every Alabamian has the right to live their lives without fear of discrimination and prejudice."

Ugh so sick of ignorance. People just need to pee. However are they really going to police bathrooms? Make you show id and then drop your pants to inspect? Talk about invasion of privacy.

She is clearly female. But, hey, this isn't about hate. At all. Not even a little bit.

Bathroom choices
 

Many places here (On. Canada) have three sets of washrooms. Mens, womens and family so that you can choose to go family (1 person) without worrying if someone is going to say you are a man in a womans washroom and vice versa. I feel comfy knowing they are available.

The smartest thing for all trans people to do is to get a passport with the correct gender marker. That is federal. It is easy to get changed. All you need is a letter from a medical physician (your HRT physician, for example), that you have been treated for Gender Dysphoria. You don't need to have had any medical surgeries for this. It only needs to say you have been/are being treated for gender dysphoria. Then always carry the passport with you.

https://travel.state.gov/content/pas...on/gender.html

You can also just get a passport card, but it can't be used for international air travel and you can only get into Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, and I think the Carribean. But, it fits nice and easy in your wallet.

https://travel.state.gov/content/pas...tion/card.html


Driver license gender marker change depends on the state. In my state it is a simple paper that I can fill out and sign in literally 5 minutes for my clients.

I looked up North Carolina. It looks like you have to have had surgery in order to get you gender marker changed on your license. What they talk about though is what it says on your birth cert. Who carries THAT around? Fortunately, in NC, if you get surgery and get your birth cert changed, the original is sealed, which means your birth name/gender will not be on the document. I looked up Alabama, since that is what this thread is about, and your birth cert will only be amended.

So...in sum, get a passport and carry it with you. It will be good for everything.

ummm, just saying, the ability to change gender markers on passports was one of the first things HRC as Secretary of State.

Well, see, that's all part of her dastardly plan you see! Hillary is the biggest anti-trans bigot in all history! Ever heard of Janice Raymond? That was her! Mary Daly? That was her again! Look into every anti-trans incident, statement, book, or pamphlet in the last 50 years or so and there you'll see HRC smiling that demonic grin of hers and just *barely* keeping the spiked tail and cloven hooves hidden by the pantsuit. That's why she wears the pantsuits. (I have it on very good authority that her clothes are made from the souls of the last puppy or kitten in the shop. Others say it comes from motherless babies, but I am partial to the puppy/kitten hypothesis.)

So, here's the thing see, once trans people have the correct gender markers on our passports she will know Who We Are. This is just the *first* stage in her plot to have us all shipped to Russia.

That Hillary Clinton is one bad mofo! She is playing a long long game. ;)

Cheers
AJ

http://www.cartelpress.com/north-car...n-transgender/

Yes, this disgusting and what is also disgusting is "CITIZENS TURNING ON OTHER CITIZENS" does this remind anyone of Nazi Germany (neighbors, etc say "a Jew lives next door" or telling men to drop their pants to see if they were circumcised.
And the police and others thinking that doing this "is right because it is the law" are they going to make us wear 1) pink triangles if we are lgbtq or 2) will they break the symbols down to categories 1) for lesbian 2) gay male 3) transgender 4) gender queer, etc. when traveling in the south or other parts of the country that feel they have a right to legislate against others for any reason they feel is "for the protection of their children". How about a predator wearing a black star for sex offender

ok so it might be, however, I really don't think that it is far from the truth. If it doesn't happen with this woman it will happen with others, mark my words. This has spurred on what could be starting to look like citizens turning on others. That is my point, it will happen

Here we go..........Bathroom laws may be coming to Texas......see article
clicketyclick



These crazy ass laws remind me so much of the white vs black bathroom usage back before my time. I just can't believe people are moving backwards instead of forwards with change in times. It's utterly Beyond my comprehension. I've already gotten into it with a niece over transgenders using whatever bathrooms they identify with, because she posted a hate meme about it making fun of transgenders idying as they do. Pathetic and hateful. Needless to say I had a very long and hard talk with my halfsister about it and she's spoken to her girls about it and how hateful it was and where it came from, etc. They are devout christians, but my sister has unconditional love, not hate in her heart and she didn't rear her girls to hate so that's why she stepped up and had a very long talk with them and I was apologized to for the posting that was offensive not just to me, but to my transgendered friends.
I just can't wrap my head around all this hate going on and the accusations being made. I just can't, it makes my head spin.

I decided that I would add my voice to those people standing up and saying "do I really look like I belong in the wrong bathroom?"

Please feel free to download the image or (even better) point people at my blog.

https://blackhypatia.wordpress.com/2...athroom-issue/



Cheers
AJ

Texas man follows woman into a bathroom to check her gender

http://m.nydailynews.com/news/politics/texas-man-woman-bathroom-check-gender-article-1.2622029

A Dallas woman was questioned about her gender by a man who followed her into a bathroom because he said she was “dressed like a man.”

Jessica Rush told KXAS-TV she filmed the last seconds of the encounter on her cell phone Thursday afternoon at the Baylor Medical Center in Frisco, Tex.

“My first thought was ‘I’m about to be attacked’ just because I am 5 [foot]3, female,” Rush said. “I understand one thing if you are like a cop of the Dallas Police Department, but just some random guy coming in I think is absolutely absurd and inappropriate.”

Rush, who is not transgender, was receiving treatment for an injured arm at the hospital Thursday as so-called “bathroom bills” prompt debates about the use of public restrooms by transgender people. Rush's Facebook video of the conversation had drawn over 10,000 views by Monday.

“When I saw you enter...I thought you was…,” the as-yet-unidentified man said.
Jessica Rush posted a video of the encounter on Facebook after it happened Thursday afternoon at a hospital in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas.

“A boy?” Rush replied. She was wearing a t-shirt and basketball shorts.

“You know it’s difficult,” the man said with a shrug as he walked away from the bathroom. “You are dressed like a man. Of course, you are dressed like a man, so…”

He later told Rush he was “confused” when he saw her go into the bathroom and went into the restroom with his mother “to make sure she was good.”

Baylor Medical spokeswoman Julie Smith said the incident was not reported and therefore isn't being investigated by hospital officials. Representatives for the Frisco Police Department didn’t immediately respond Monday afternoon to a request to know whether police are reviewing it.

Rush, who didn’t immediately respond to a request for an interview, wrote on Facebook saying “Welcome to my world” and asking, “Do you actually think I would choose this life?” She shared local and national news reports as word of the video spread over the weekend.

Andrea: Click link for rest of article

"Let me also speak directly to the transgender community itself. Some of you have lived freely for decades. Others of you are still wondering how you can possibly live the lives you were born to lead. But no matter how isolated or scared you may feel today, the Department of Justice and the entire Obama Administration wants you to know that we see you; we stand with you; and we will do everything we can to protect you going forward. Please know that history is on your side. This country was founded on a promise of equal rights for all, and we have always managed to move closer to that promise, little by little, one day at a time. It may not be easy – but we’ll get there together."

Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. Attorney General

At the Press Conference to Announce Complaint Against the State of North Carolina to Stop Discrimination Against Transgender Individuals

Full transcript:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/a...cing-complaint

I dont speak too much on here..

but this is an issue that terrifies me

I avoid all bathrooms now because i dont pass for one gender or another yet
i confuse people terribly O.o

https://youtu.be/Ov-ocQpQtrw <----but now we have people like this popping up all over the place...
and i cant help but have hope for the human race

https://youtu.be/qjGv6exoKkw

This is the most amazing piece I've read yet on the bathroom issue.

https://driftingthrough.com/2016/04/...et-boycotters/

I’m Proof Bathroom Bills Are Not Just a Transgender Issue
by Sally Kohn

http://time.com/4322953/north-carolina-mississippi-bathroom-bills/

I’m a lesbian and I fear public restroom confrontations

I hate using public restrooms. Airports and rest stops are my least favorite. I avoid locker rooms whenever possible. But really every restroom is bad. In fact, it happened to me just the other day in my fancy office building in New York City. I was at the sink, washing my hands, when a woman walked into the restroom and did a double take, first looking at me and then looking back at the sign on the still-open door of the restroom. Was she in the wrong place? Or, implicitly, was I?

I am a biological female who identifies as a woman. I am not, for any intents or purposes, transgender. But as a non-gender conforming butch lesbian, I have my own tiny window into our nation’s current political debate about bathrooms—the always looming fear that easily slips into shame, and the occasional outright harassment, all because I have to pee. And that’s from using the bathrooms that I “should” be using according to vicious anti-transgender bills sweeping the nation.

The first time I was actually yelled at in a bathroom, at least that I can remember, I was 19 years old. I was, and still am, 6’1″, but back then I had straight shoulder-length hair that dangled as awkwardly around my chin as everything else about me at that age. I was openly gay but still otherwise finding myself. I still wore dresses sometimes. Also awkwardly. I was a study abroad student in England on vacation in Bath. I don’t remember much of anything from the entire semester, but I remember going into some lavish hotel along the beach to use the bathroom and, while I was washing my hands at the sink, getting yelled at by a group of women.

One of them, standing next to me at the sink, yelled to her friends in the stalls: “There’s a boy in here!”

As the others came out, they loomed at me and shouted things like: “What are you doing in here?” and “You’re in the wrong place!”

And in a sense, they were right. It turns out the women were all part of a bridal shower, wearing those most conventionally feminine pastel dresses to participate in that most quintessentially heteronormative of traditions. They belonged—in that bathroom and in society more broadly—and I most certainly didn’t. And still don’t.

Whatever you might have heard to the contrary, the “bathroom bills” that have passed in North Carolina and Mississippi and are now pending in other states have nothing to do with public safety. The simple fact is that under existing laws, it is already a crime to dress up as a man or woman in order to falsely gain entry to any public restroom to harass or harm anyone. That is a crime in states with transgender legal protections and a crime in states without such laws. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace noted that such crimes have not taken place in communities that have transgender rights laws.

What these “bathroom bills” are actually about is enforcing traditional gender codes and norms in an increasingly diverse and shifting America. Single-sex restrooms just like single-sex dormitories have always been rooted in compulsory heteronormativity and the sense that we have to protect women from men who can’t expect to be reigned in. This still echoes today, as when an all-male elite club at Harvard University suggested that allowing women to join would increase the potential for sexual assault. And notice that no one seems to worry about pedophiles being forced to use the little boy’s room instead. The point is that girls need protecting.

And femininity must be protected, too. Or even enforced. A video that recently went viral shows a woman being forcibly evicted from a restroom because she looks more masculine. Should women not only have to be born women to use the ladies room but wear skirts? Maybe have their hair a certain length and curled?

That moment in the restroom in England, I blurted out something like “I am a girl!” and then rushed out in tears. I wiped my eyes and pretended with my friends that it was no big deal, joking that I should have flashed the women my breasts and said: “Here are my ID cards!” And I’ve thought of a million more clever comebacks ever since. But it was a big deal, and it still is. Those women weren’t just confronting my right to pee but my right to belong—my right to be just as much female as they were, even if I wasn’t female in their exact way. They were questioning my right to feel like I was in the right place and the right body not because they decided I was but because I did.

That may scare the hell out of some people, that people born as men can transition to being women and women can be women and wear men’s clothes. But it’s a form of liberty and freedom—the sort our nation was supposedly founded on and we’re just now getting around to extending to everyone besides straight white men. I try to remember that, and to feel brave and confident, in my own skin, in my own style, in my own stall, every time I have to pee.

Great article Andrea. I stand with my transgender brothers and sisters whether these horrible laws effect me or not, but I know as a butch that I could be affected as well. It makes it less safe for all non-conforming gender people and doesn't make it any more safer for those who may be assumed to conform to their gender. And of course these laws and movements make it less safe as well beyond public bathrooms.

I agree with you BulDog ... that was a great article and made me think of the same exact incident of Electro and I in a bathroom 1 time washing our hands and talking and a lady walked in ... but walked back out when she seen us .. then look at the sign on the door ... but never came back in. .. but never said anything either that we know of.

Some days I lose faith in the human race
 

Woman who donated hair to cancer patients mistaken for trans woman and harassed in bathroom

Has North Carolina’s anti-transgender bathroom bill created an environment of fear and paranoia in public restrooms? One woman named Aimee Toms, who was recently harassed in a Walmart restroom after someone mistook her for a transgender woman, believes that it has.

Danbury News Times reports that Toms was accosted by another woman while she was washing her hands in a Walmart bathroom in Danbury, Connecticut. Toms was wearing a baseball hat and she had very short hair because she recently donated her hair to a charity that makes wigs for children with cancer.

She said that she was approached by a complete stranger in the bathroom and was told that “You’re disgusting!” and “You don’t belong here!” The 22-year-old Toms posted a video on Facebook talking about how the experience opened her eyes to the abuse that transgender people face every day.

“After experiencing the discrimination they face firsthand, I cannot fathom the discrimination transgender people must face in a lifetime,” she said. “Can you imagine going out every day and having people tell you you should not be who you are or that people will not accept you as who you are?”

Toms also linked her experience back to the current debate over whether transgender people should be allowed to use the public bathrooms of the gender that they identify with.



http://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/woma...d-in-restroom/

This just highlights for me again my concern that there will be an increase in harassment for gender non-conforming butches. I believe that it will level out and things will go back to "normal" (you know, the "normal" intensity/frequency of harassment butches are used to dealing with <eyeroll>), but I don't know how long that will be.

The other thing to keep in mind though, is that there really isn't any way to know if harassment in bathrooms is increasing or if it is just being publicized.

Too, I am wondering if butches who are often suspected as being male are feeling more anxious now when using bathrooms?

What is stupid about this whole thing, is that I can see the possibility of butches choosing to start using men's room just for safety. Guys don't notice.

I started using the men's room as soon as I started testosterone. It takes a while to see some changes happen. Point is, I looked the exact same. I wasn't hassled at all (unlike the women's room), and I was amazed at how much more relaxed I was. I used to have such crazy high anxiety going into the women's room. As soon as I started using the men's that all abated. I wish I had started using the men's restroom years before I decided that taking testosterone was right for me.

However, if I were a woman identified butch, I would be pissed off at the idea that using the men's room is the only way I would feel "safe". I would also feel like I was giving into the boxes of gender conformity that I had fought against my whole life.

living in the country up in this area where there is a lot of farms and some of them farm girls whom 100% straight .... but have masculine features ... I'm sure have or will run into a issue with this whole mess.

Guard Charged with Assault After Confronting Transgender Woman Using Women's Restroom, Source Says

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Guard-Charged-with-Assault-After-Confronting-Transgender-Woman-Using-Womens-Restroom-380010941.html

D.C. Police have charged a security guard at a Giant grocery store with simple assault after sources say she had a confrontation with a transgender woman who was trying to use the women's restroom.

The guard, who has not been identified, is a special police officer at a Giant store near Third and H streets in northeast D.C.

Police confirmed they had arrested her there earlier today for a confrontation in the store, though they did not reveal details of the arrest.

News4 spoke with Ebony Belcher, the transgender woman who said she was assaulted by the officer.

Belcher, 32, said the woman came into the restroom and told her to get out. She said the officer put her hand on her shoulder and arm, grabbed her and tried to march her out of the store.

Belcher said she suffers from Parkinson's disease and almost fell while the officer was shoving her.

Giant issued a statement, which read: "As this matter involves a third party that provides security services for Giant and there's an ongoing criminal investigation, all inquiries related to the incident at the H Street Giant should be directed to the local police for a comment at this time."

People have gone fucking nuts pure and simple.

Okay, we actually discussed this in my LGBT group at therapy, and I even looked it up and was outraged. I still am. It never fails to rattle me how and why this is a concern to so many people. Before this fiasco began, there was people using bathrooms and not a care in the world. I go to the men's room sometimes, or sometimes I use the Ladies room. If I had to go, I went. And I have been in a bathroom with a trans man or woman and had no issues. I don't see where it's that big of a deal. It's just the bathroom. It's human nature.

Today I had a doctor's appointment.

Not thinking and having to go to the bathroom before I came home, I walked into the men's room.

I looked up, saw an older man around 70-years old, peeing at the urinal.

I was so surprised that I squeaked, "I am so sorry, I thought it was the woman's room".

He looked at me in the mirror over the urinal, kept on peeing and said, very drolly:

"Don't worry about it, these days, it doesn't matter".

The insanity keeps on coming...
 

NEWS MAY 26 2016, 4:16 PM ET

Utah Dad Attacked for Taking 5-Year-Old Daughter to Wal-Mart Men's Bathroom

by DANIELLA SILVA

A Utah father taking his young children to the bathroom at a Wal-Mart ended in violence after he was punched in the face by another customer allegedly over taking his 5-year-old daughter with him to the men's room.

Christopher Adams was on a family trip to buy blinds and storage bins at a Wal-Mart in the city of Clinton over the weekend when his two children, 7-year-old Kyler and 5-year-old Emery, had to use the restroom, he told NBC affiliate KSL.

Adams said he took his son and daughter with him into the men's restroom when a confrontation ensued.

"This guy walks in and goes to the bathroom, the urinal, and then he just like turns to me and starts freaking out and dropping the f-bomb," Adams said. "And what he was freaking out about was that my daughter was in the men's bathroom."

Adams said the other man told him he thought Emery's presence in the restroom was inappropriate and started to shove him.

"When I turned back around, I got sucker punched," he said.

Adams said he was punched in the face and kicked in the knee multiple times before he was able to force his assailant out of the restroom.

"I just slammed him to the ground and just held him until associates from Wal-Mart could get there," Adams the distraught dad added.

Clinton Police Lt. Shawn Stoker said the individual who was "determined to be the aggressor" was cited at the scene.

"WHEN I TURNED BACK AROUND, I GOT SUCKER PUNCHED."

The man, who police declined to name, was cited for disorderly conduct and the city attorney was screening a potential assault charge, according to KSL.

"This is a situation where a father felt the most reasonable and safe thing for him to do was to take his children inside the restroom with him," Stoker told the station.

The other customer "took exception to that," he said.

"I want him to understand that he was in the wrong," Adams added. "The way he handled the situation was completely wrong — I just think it's ridiculous."


FIRST PUBLISHED MAY 26 2016, 3:36 PM ET

HTTP://WWW.NBCNEWS.COM/NEWS/US-NEWS/...L-MART-N581021