The 18-year-old high school student said she unzipped her hoodie to show she had breasts after a Buffalo Wild Wings server didn't believe she is a woman.
Bathroom access has long been used to punish undesirable groups and to keep them from public life. Women who chose to work outside the home were punished in the 19th century by not having access to restrooms. People of color were punished in the 20th century for daring to exist in society by being denied restroom access at white establishments. And now people are trying to punish trans and gender non-conforming people by denying them restroom access.
In case you haven’t connected the dots, the obsession over restrooms isn’t actually about restrooms. If you can restrict the ability of undesirables to access public restrooms, you can effectively bar them from public life. It’s a way of criminalizing innocent people without actually having to arrest or throw them in prison.
And yes, these laws do effectively ban trans people from any bathroom. I’m a trans person myself, but you wouldn’t know unless I told you. I would be violating the law if I used the women’s restroom in Florida. But if I went into the men’s, I would have people throwing me out, telling me I’m in the wrong bathroom. Hell, I could be arrested for trying to use the men’s room in Florida, the very bathroom the law requires me to use. There’s no easy way for me to even prove that I am trans. My legal documents have all been documented, and I went far enough in transition I couldn’t even prove my trans status by dropping my pants. And yet, the law in Florida requires me to use the men’s restroom. So if I use a restroom in Florida, I either have to violate the law and risk arrest if somehow someone were to figure it out and report me. Or I could follow the law and still face harassment, assault, and possible arrest.
Truthfully, to me, the law in Florida has done exactly what it was intended to do. I simply won’t set foot in the state of Florida, or any other state with a bathroom ban. The government of Florida has effectively barred me, an American citizen, from the right to visit the state. And all I did to deserve this banishment was be born trans.
Bathroom access has long been used to punish undesirable groups and to keep them from public life. Women who chose to work outside the home were punished in the 19th century by not having access to restrooms. People of color were punished in the 20th century for daring to exist in society by being denied restroom access at white establishments. And now people are trying to punish trans and gender non-conforming people by denying them restroom access.
In case you haven’t connected the dots, the obsession over restrooms isn’t actually about restrooms. If you can restrict the ability of undesirables to access public restrooms, you can effectively bar them from public life. It’s a way of criminalizing innocent people without actually having to arrest or throw them in prison.
And yes, these laws do effectively ban trans people from any bathroom. I’m a trans person myself, but you wouldn’t know unless I told you. I would be violating the law if I used the women’s restroom in Florida. But if I went into the men’s, I would have people throwing me out, telling me I’m in the wrong bathroom. Hell, I could be arrested for trying to use the men’s room in Florida, the very bathroom the law requires me to use. There’s no easy way for me to even prove that I am trans. My legal documents have all been documented, and I went far enough in transition I couldn’t even prove my trans status by dropping my pants. And yet, the law in Florida requires me to use the men’s restroom. So if I use a restroom in Florida, I either have to violate the law and risk arrest if somehow someone were to figure it out and report me. Or I could follow the law and still face harassment, assault, and possible arrest.
Truthfully, to me, the law in Florida has done exactly what it was intended to do. I simply won’t set foot in the state of Florida, or any other state with a bathroom ban. The government of Florida has effectively barred me, an American citizen, from the right to visit the state. And all I did to deserve this banishment was be born trans.