Last week, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed an extreme new law that blocks local governments from expanding protections for members of the LGBT community. Unfortunately, North Carolina isn’t the only state where “Right to Discriminate” laws are being enacted. While these discriminatory measures against members of the LGBT community are being passed in legislatures across the country, it is important to remember that they are officially supported and furthered by the national Republican Party.
Just a month ago, a resolution was passed and approved by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus condemning “government overreach” of the Obama administration’s interpretation of Title IX, which prohibits discrimination against transgender students. It said:
“The Republican National Committee calls on the Department of Education to rescind its interpretation of Title IX that wrongly includes facility use issues by transgender students.
“The Republican National Committee encourages state legislatures to enact laws that protect student privacy and limit the use of restrooms, locker rooms and similar facilities to members of the sex to whom the facility is designated.”
Simply put, the RNC is directing state legislatures and other elected officials to discriminate against our friends and neighbors who deserve full and equal protection under the law. Many of these states have already complied with the wishes of Republican leaders. They include Virginia, Indiana and Tennessee.
Instead of their usual mantra that decision-making should made at the local level, Republican leaders are steam rolling local officials to undermine Americans’ civil rights. This is wrong.
See where else this is happening:
GOP bill would limit bathroom use to ‘biological sex’, Star Tribune // Ricardo Lopez
The battle over transgender rights has flared at the State Capitol as a group of Republican legislators unveiled a proposal Wednesday that would require people to use bathrooms and changing rooms that match their “biological sex.”
House panel endorses transgender bathroom bill, Daily Press // Travis Fain
Legislation that would require students to use bathrooms based on their biological sex, which gained some notoriety this year as the “genital check” bill, cleared a House subcommittee Thursday.
House Bill 781 would require school systems and state agencies to adopt bathroom policies meant to keep transgender people from using the bathroom of the gender they identify with. These policies wouldn’t affect unisex bathrooms.
Indiana senator proposes bill to make it illegal to use restroom not of your “biological gender”
Fox 59 // Tanae Howard
An Indiana lawmaker says it should be a crime for people to use a public restroom that’s marked a gender different than the gender they were born.
The transgender community says this is a scare tactic, while the lawmaker says his bill is keeping up with a changing society.
“It’s a simple bill,” said Sen. Jim Tomes (R-District 49) “It’s just men use men’s restrooms and dressing rooms and women use the women’s restrooms and dressing rooms.”
TN Lawmaker Proposes Transgender ‘Bathroom Bill’, LocalMemphis.com
A Tennessee state lawmaker is working on legislation to prevent schools from building gender-neutral bathrooms for transgender students.
State Representative Bud Hulsey of Sullivan County says the bill would protect schools and would require them to only provide a male and female bathroom.
Proposed law would limit transgender protections throughout Florida, Miami Herald // Steve Routhas
A Miami Republican has filed a Florida House bill that would limit — some say “invalidate” — transgender nondiscrimination ordinances throughout the state.
State Rep. Frank Artiles on Wednesday filed HB 583, titled “Single-Sex Public Facilities.”
Artiles’ proposed law: “Single-Sex Public Facilities: Requires that use of single-sex facilities be restricted to persons of sex for which facility is designated; prohibits knowingly & willfully entering single-sex public facility designated for or restricted to persons of other biological sex; provides exemptions; provides private cause of action against violators; provides for preemption.”
Bathroom Fears Flush Houston Discrimination Ordinance, Texas Tribune // Alexa Ura
Delivering a hit to the Texas gay rights movement, Houston voters on Tuesday resoundingly rejected an ordinance that would have established protections from discrimination for gay and transgender residents and several other classes.
With 95 percent of votes counted, 61 percent of voters opposed the measure. The embattled ordinance, better known as HERO, would have made it illegal to discriminate against someone based on 15 different “protected characteristics,” including sex, race, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity.
South Dakota may regulate transgender students’ bathroom use, Rapid City Journal
South Dakota would be the first state in the U.S. to approve a law requiring transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their sex at birth if the governor signs a bill passed Tuesday by the state Senate.
Oklahoma Legislature: Bill filed to restrict use of restrooms by ‘biological gender’, Tulsa World
A state lawmaker has filed a bill that would govern the use of restrooms in relation to gender.
Sen. Joseph Silk, R-Broken Bow, is the author of Senate Bill 1014.
The measure would make it “unlawful for a person to use a gender-specific restroom when that person’s biological gender is contrary to that of the gender-specific restroom.”