City Bans Trans People From Using Restrooms That Don't Match Their Sex Assigned At Birth

[surfered]

Last edited Fri Oct 25, 2024, 10:04 AM - Edit history (1)

The City Council of Odessa, TX, (The Friendly State) passed the ordinance by a vote of 5 - 2, which is a solution for which there is no problem, except on Fox News. My wife informs me that in all her years, she has never witnessed a problem as they have stalls with doors. She has let me know, innumerable times, that there are just never enough of them at concerts, etc.

But back to the point, will you need your Birth Certificate to use a public restroom and what if you forgot it? How will they enforce this law? I think since Ted Cruz seems to have such a weird, sort of perverse interest in this non-existent problem, he should move to Odessa and act as a bathroom monitor, checking your Birth Certificate then looking in your underwear to verify compliance. You just know he wants to and it would at least give him something to do other than the only thing he seems to spend most of his time doing, which is trolling.

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/10/23/odessa-texas-transgender-bathroom-ban/#:~:text=ODESSA — The City Council on Tuesday banned,emotionally charged exchange between residents and city leaders.

[hlthe2b]

1. Did we not all grow up (going back decades for lots of us) driving cross country and finding the gas stations

had ONE bathroom for all--usually a "one-seater" but occasionally had a urinal too? Geebus. Whatever did we do?

[MineralMan]

2. Yes, and we also grew up in houses with just one bathroom.

Somehow, everyone used it, regardless of their genital arrangements.

This is just another bit of nonsense from the right.

[Hotler]

21. The christian right. nt

[MineralMan]

34. They also grew up sharing bathrooms at home.

Unless you had plenty of money, families shared bathrooms.

See, I can't find the difference between that and gender-neutral bathrooms elsewhere. Nope. Same thing.

[LeftInTX]

13. This ordinance does not apply to businesses

I'm not supporting, but things get on the books because they are not as extreme as imagined.

It applies to city owned property such as parks and municipal buildings. They already have an old law on the books to keep men out of women,'s restrooms. This one expands on it.

This is harmful because it excludes a class of people from using restrooms at city council meetings. It also discriminates against city employees.

The city probably knows who their transgender employees are. Also there are "citizens to be heard" events where gender is an issue. In both of these cases, bathroom cops are not needed, because the city already knows "who is who". They can discriminate on the spot.

It's a problem in search of a solution. And it's a slippery slope. But if you stop at a Buc ees in Odessa, there will not be bathroom cops.

I don't think this ordinance is legal.

[hlthe2b]

14. I'm referencing the concept, not the specific ordinance. This is not something NEW to most Americans.

especially if they are female and have ever seen the mile-long lines for the women's restroom at major public venues. Any qualms disappear when a beyond-full bladder meets with a near-empty men's room.

[FreeState]

38. Yep - I had the opposite happen too

At the Pink concert last month they had converted all the mens restrooms to women's except for one. There was a line of women going into the only mens restroom they had. To be honest, since there was only one provided for all the men, it was a bit perturbing to be standing at a urinal with my junk out and a bunch of strange women looking at me. I chalked it up to bad planing and didnt care other than feeling odd that women were looking at my privates.

[TommyT139]

31. You are forgetting other cases

For instance, offices like courts, town clerks, etc. -- many basic functions of citizenship take place in municipal buildings.

[LeftInTX]

35. Yes. I know. I'm on my phone.

But my hunch is, this bill is aimed at "known" transgenders versus checking birth certificates at bathrooms.

The whole thing is fricking illegal. Even the SC will not support it.

However, to remove a law, someone will need to sue. Will they have standing? Do they need to have access denied to sue? Or can a group like ACLU simply sue?

[TommyT139]

41. Elsewhere

Elsewhere, like Florida (similar but broader law) they aren't doing checks for everyone, but seem to be relying on tattletale complaints. As we know already from other contexts, those complaints are likely to alert on non trans people. The real goal is of course othering and terrorizing trans people. Texas has weaponized vagueness before, so it's not surprising they are doing it again.

By the way, for future use if you are open to it, there are no "transgenders." There are transgender people, transgender men, transgender women, etc.

[LeftInTX]

42. Ok. As long as I'm not on my phone!

Took me like 3 months to type thus.. phone won't fix to minutes

[Oopsie Daisy]

3. For all practical purposes, this is unenforceable. But the intended purpose is to make people afraid *

* and hateful of trans individuals. Those who wrote and promoted the law want to plant the idea in people's minds that trans individuals are "predators" or sexual perverts who derive pleasure from peeing or having a BM in a stall that has a cis individual in the next stall. It's all so very hateful.

[Quiet Em]

17. I have never ever been afraid of or had issues with

a transgender woman in the bathroom.

The whole push on this is so stupid. And it's mostly men who are afraid of this. Women aren't.

[Oopsie Daisy]

20. Because the men pushing this are projecting their own voyeuristic fantasies onto others.

[Ocelot II]

4. So how is that going to be enforced? Will there be an official position of Crotch Monitor?

In my decades of occasionally having to use a public restroom, I have never, ever seen another person's genitals, nor could I if I wanted to, which I don't. You relieve yourself in a little cubicle with a door. Nobody sees what you've got, and normal people don't care. I might have unknowingly shared that bathroom with a trans person from time to time, and I don't care about that either, since as far as I'm concerned that person was just another woman who was in the "correct" restroom for the same reason I was there. Does this absurd ordinance mean that if someone is even suspected of being trans (Why? Just because they are taller than average? Is that enough of a reason?) by some MAGA Karen in the ladies' room at a football game in Odessa they will have to expose themselves to the Crotch Monitor?

WTAF is wrong with these people?

[LeftInTX]

36. This applies to city facilities

If anything they can use it against employees where they have access to their gender(s), birthdate etc. Texas has open birth records. My kid's birthdays, parents' names, birth location etc are all online.

[Ocelot II]

37. It's still bad even if it doesn't apply to private businesses.

Besides being an obvious problem for employees it would deter trans people who are members of the public from visiting city facilities, and especially to public meetings, if they knew they couldn't even use a restroom without being harassed. How could they even come to a city council meeting to object to the ordinance?

[LeftInTX]

40. I know it's bad. And it's illegal.

And yes, the city is small enough that it likely alresdy knows the gender of people who show up to city council meetings.

[4th]

5. How exactly are they going to enforce it?

Particularly for restrooms in private businesses?
Uniformed pecker checkers with DNA kits?
Or undercover pecker checkers?

It will be selectively enforced on people who look "freaky".
Probable cause?
4th and 5th amendments anyone?
And that's just for starters.

So many constitutional issues, and from the same folks who profess to love the constitution.

[HAB911]

6. So let me get this straight

Someone identifying as male, and I assume dressing as such, but assigned female at birth, will be forced to use the female bathroom and vice versa? Have they thought this through completely? No way to enforce, FEAR is the point.

[Wiz Imp]

39. Right. And when that person uses the women's bathroom these same people will scream bloody murder

For a man being in the women's bathroom.

[meadowlander]

43. Exactly. If what the TERFs and God-botherers are afraid of is trans people providing cover for male sexual predators,

this legislation will require AFAB trans men who look and dress like men (and not coincidentally, are men) to use the women's bathroom presumably providing considerably more cover for male sexual predators than letting trans women use the women's bathroom. Not that I accept the premise in the first place that there's some rapist out there who needs to dress like a woman to assault women in the women's bathroom.

But whatever, TERFs. Keep telling yourself its all about "protecting safe spaces for women" and pretending trans men don't exist and aren't also impacted by your bullshit policies.

[Jerry2144]

7. If it's about preventing sexual abuse, then they need to ban

Republicans and clergy from using public bathrooms

[Scrivener7]

8. Try and check my "fitness" to be using a women's room. I dare you.

[WestMichRad]

9. Texas is an "open carry without permit" state

… so there’s your enforcement mechanism: domestic terrorism.

[surfered]

10. True

&pp=ygUMeW9zZW1pdGUgc2Ft

[area51]

11. This is insane.

These city officials have way too much free time on their hands.

Trans rights are human rights.

[Ferrets are Cool]

12. A policeman at ever door? How the fuck do you identify a "trans" person?

Do they have signs around their necks? Do they have blinking red arrows above their heads with the word TRANS emblazoned on it?

Fuck these idiots.

[LeftInTX]

16. It doesn't apply to businesses

It discriminates against transgender city employees etc. Like bathroom bills, no cops are needed,.

[maxsolomon]

15. Performative legislating.

If Odessa CC DIDN'T pass this, they'd be condoning child rape by transexuals. Or something. They really had no choice.

[ck4829]

18. "Something else to do" for the Texas cop afraid of going after a school shooter, they can harass a trans person instead

[Patton French]

19. Unenforceable NT

[RANDYWILDMAN]

22. Great solution

i'm sure trans women will be welcomed with open arms in men's restrooms


How will this not incite more violence, oh right it totally will...like they want it too

[Initech]

23. Fuck the city of Odessa, TX, then.

[DSandra]

24. And this is how transphobia hurts all women

[Liberal In Texas]

25. Odessa.

Figures.

[NoMoreRepugs]

26. Will they be policing port-a-potties at fairs and outdoor events in Odessa??

[Basso8vb]

27. Texas has become a fascist shithole along with Florida.

[Jacson6]

28. What? Are they going to have a cop sit outside every bathroom checking birth certificates?

[keithbvadu2]

29. They have to be sure.

.

[Klarkashton]

30. They employ.a guard in front of every toilet or what?

[MichMan]

32. Time for some civil disobedience

Everyone progressive should use the wrong bathroom whenever possible.

[marble falls]

33. Just what the heck, anyways. I've spent my fair share of time in men's rooms in my 70+ years ...

... and the heck if I ever gave a thought about "what if" regarding the sexuality of anyone in there with me.

Obviously I can't speak as woman and her experiences, but I bet it's pretty similar, with the exception of some men who haven't needed to dress up to predate on women up to now.

Why is it, though, that those most interested in the plumbing of someone making use of a woman's restroom are cis-male???

[Retrograde]

44. I'm currently in my local brewpub

having lunch after a morning of appointments. They have two restrooms: one is labeled “restroom” and the other is labeled - “restroom”. And the world is still plodding along as always.