St. Petersburg – There was a brief meeting at the Metro Wellness Center March 24 in support of opposing the Transgender Discrimination Bill (aka the Bathroom Bill).
The panelists included Equality Florida’s Gina Duncan, therapist Tristan Byrnes, business consultant Jean David Parlier and law student Nathan Bruemmer.
The tone was that of confidence and perseverance as the panelist broke down the reasons for the bill’s existence and their strategy for toppling it. The views were pragmatic and pointed; the one item they all had in common was the bill, come hell or high water, would be eliminated.
“Honestly the chances of this bill making it to law are slim to none,” Duncan said after the town hall meeting. “But it has put a target on Florida’s transgender population.”
The bill, created by Rep. Frank Artiles (R-Miami), was supposedly created as a way to protect the public from sexual deviants and sexual predators. He remains adamant the bill is not intended to disenfranchise the trans community.
Duncan said after the meeting that she believed the motivation behind Artiles’ bill was a human rights ordinance that passed recently in Miami-Dade county that offers protections on gender identity and expression. Artiles argued against that HRO, which passed after more than seven hours of public comment.
The panel presents the new bill as almost laughableif it weren’t so steeped in bigotry. It almost single-pointedly attacks an already segregated population based on subjective physical traits.
However, whether bill exists from good intentions or bad, it doesn’t seem terribly interested in actual public safety. The bathroom users, which seem almost universally busier on the women/women-identified category, are forced into compulsive and reactionary positions, and that judgment is the sole basis for any and all prejudices that might arise.
“I was to the point where I felt comfortable going into the women’s restroom,” Duncan said. “Now, I don’t. Things have changed.”
The panel argues that the bill is subjective, unenforceable and, perhaps most importantly, it puts Florida business owners in the position of lose/lose by forcing owners to go to battle with their customers no matter which side they chose.
In the end, from what the panel has suggested, the bill that was brought out to help protect everyone does not actually protect anyone and, in the process, does a lot more damage to everyone involved.
