When a politician tells you that it’s a bathroom bill only if it uses those words, they’re wrong.

Summary:

A number of politicians are telling us that sexual orientation and gender identity laws (SOGI) would not be used to allow men into women’s locker rooms, bathrooms, or showers. They tell you these are not Bathroom bills unless these laws actually have the word “bathroom” in them.

There is a growing list of women and children who have experienced men (who identify as women) in a state of undress in the women’s locker rooms and changing areas based on laws that say nothing more than that public accommodations must open facilities on the basis of gender identity. And many persons now experience this in the workplace with laws that say nothing more than that an employer may not discriminate on the basis of gender identity. These laws affect us, our children, and our grandchildren.

Facts & Sources:

Senate Bill 613 & House Bill 1410 – while not specifically saying “bathroom” – discusses “facilities” and “privileges,” which have been read elsewhere to include restrooms, locker rooms and showers.

  • A Kmart worker in Philadelphia got in trouble when she tried to keep a man in a skirt out of a women’s changing area. The police forced Kmart to open the women’s changing area based on a Philadelphia SOGI law like the one being proposed here in PA. Kmart ultimately needed to instruct that female employee and all of their employees that they must allow men to use the women’s dressing rooms  — spaces we all would want to keep private. View source
  • The Philadelphia city law didn’t specifically say bathroom, locker room, or shower. But the City explained that the law applied to all of these places—even though the law itself didn’t use those words. And that’s how it works in other places in our country too.
  • Public accommodations are places that provide goods and services such as restaurants, movie theaters, hotels, and public schools. If sexual orientation and gender identity were added to anti-discrimination law, then public accommodations couldn’t exclude transgender people from the restrooms that correspond to their gender identity “any more than you could exclude Muslims” from an establishment…In schools, that means facilities such as bathrooms and locker rooms must also be accessible — said Mariah Passarelli, a Pittsburgh-based lawyer at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC who specializes in employment and anti-discrimination law. View source
  • “Prohibiting individuals from using restrooms consistent with their gender identity would likely be interpreted to be discrimination based on gender identity in violation of the law,” said Christy Mallory, state and local policy director of the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, a think tank that researches sexual orientation and gender law and public policy. View source
  • Handout: SB 613 & HB 1410 affect bathrooms and showers.

Take action:

Use PA Family Council’s Citizen Action Center to tell your State Senator & State Representative to oppose Senate Bill 613 & House Bill 1410: Click here to take action.

—-

Return to WhenAPoliticianTellsYou.com