General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Allowing biological men to use women's restrooms? [View all]Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)"By making sure the scope of nondiscrimination laws and ordinances extend to sexual orientation and gender identity, activists were largely successful in delaying the fight, but it's been avoided rather than won. That means attacks such as these will continue to happen. They will continue to meet some degree of success, given that public opinion still reveals startlingly retrograde views about LGBT people in general. So as long as transgender people are seen as less authentic than cisgender (nontrans) people, the idea of transgender people in public bathrooms will still incite the sort of fear that drives this legislation.
Fortunately, at least in the United States, the impact of these bills will be limited. The Department of Justice has finally engaged, and has now unequivocally said that discrimination on the basis of gender identity, which these bills engage in, is discrimination on the basis of sex under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. That determination presumably also applies to the Fourteenth Amendment, suggesting that state action to discriminate against transgender people will receive substantial scrutiny from the judiciary."
http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/03/18/op-ed-bathrooms-will-be-next-lgbt-rights-battleground