Proposed Florida Bill Would Restrict Trans People from Using Public Restrooms
Proposed Florida Bill Would Restrict Trans People from Using Public Restrooms
(Photo: The Guardian)
The Florida House panel is considering a bill that would make public restrooms and dressing rooms properly designated for one sex off limits for anyone not biologically born that particular gender. Violators entering a room designated for the sex they weren’t born would be committing a first degree misdemeanor.
Gay marriage has actually been legal in Florida for about a month now but most of the state’s hardcore conservatives are still having trouble with the fact that marriage equality is here to stay. Consequently, Florida’s most bigoted legislators have now focused their sights on another minority–trans people–by proposing one of the most viciously sadistic and hypocritical bills the legislature has ever considered.
The Single-Sex Public Facilities Act would target Florida’s transgender community, which one legal protection from discrimination with a Human Rights Ordinance passed in December. State Rep. Frank Artiles, who filed the bill proposal, explained that his bill is a response to the transgender rights ordinance.
“My number one concern is public safety. It’s not that the transgender community is dangerous by any means, but [the ordinance] creates a giant loophole for criminals, sexual deviants, and sexual predators to walk into a shower, a woman’s locker room under the cover of law.”
-by Sarah Furlong
