If you weren’t aware that absurd anti-LGBT policy discussions had reached the horizon of legislative credulity, then you should probably take a look at Kansas (or Sarasota, or South Dakota or North Carolina, really). Today, progressive website thinkprogress.com reports that some strangely obsessed legislators in Kansas are taking the toilet-talk to a new level. Kids could be paid a ransom for outing trans students in the “wrong” bathrooms.
“The complementary bills (SB 513 and HB 2737) declare in no uncertain terms that transgender students are going to harm other students just by using the same facility alongside them. ‘Allowing students to use restrooms, locker rooms and showers that are reserved for students of a different sex will create potential embarrassment, shame, and psychological injury to students,’ they read.”
“Like bills proposed in other states, these measures attempt to define “sex” in a narrow way — in this case, ‘the physical condition of being male or female, which is determined by a person’s chromosomes, and is identified at birth by a person’s anatomy.'”
What’s most concerning about the introduction of the Kansas bills, of course, is that it pits students against students. What’s most telling about the Kansas bills is that parents are afraid of being called bigots for supporting them. So quoth Think Progress:
“If transgender students request accommodations, they can only be provided ‘access to single-stall bathrooms; access to unisex bathrooms; or controlled use of faculty bathrooms, locker rooms or shower rooms.’ As experts pointed out when a similar provision was included in South Dakota’s bill, this would out, segregate, and ostracize transgender students who might already be vulnerable to bullying.”
“But transgender students are apparently such a threat to their peers that these lawmakers believe anyone who has to be in a restroom for them should have grounds for a suit. If a student encounters someone ‘of the opposite sex,’ they have a private cause of action against the school. The aggrieved student is entitled to $2,500 for every time they saw someone transgender in the restroom, plus ‘monetary damages for all psychological, emotional and physical harm suffered as a result of a violation of this section.'”
Look now, ma. They’re privatizing bigotry. Shame on Kansas. Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIaN9Koa9oM
