By CRISTINA SILVA
Associated Press
PHOENIX (AP) - Arizona lawmakers have jumped in to
the national debate over the rights of transgender people with a bill
being debated Wednesday that would make it illegal for people to use
public restrooms not associated with their birth gender.
Advocates say the measure would be the toughest
standard in the nation for transgender people and bathroom use,
requiring Arizona residents to use the restroom of the sex listed on
their birth certificate.
State and local governments are increasingly adding
gender identity to anti-discrimination bans to ward off legal battles,
but the delicate issue of what kind of restroom can be accessed by men
and women presenting as a gender other than what they were born as
remains largely unexplored despite a growing number of people
identifying as transgender.
Transgender people have successfully sued
businesses that didn't provide equal access to public facilities under
state and local anti-discrimination bans that include gender identity.
But opponents and proponents alike complain the laws don't explicitly
demand businesses provide equal access for transgender people, creating
confusion over how governments, restaurants, clothing stores and other
establishments must act.
In recent weeks, Massachusetts and California took
steps to clarify such laws and ensure equal access for transgender
students to gender-segregated facilities. Phoenix passed a human rights
ordinance last month prohibiting gender identity discrimination at
public accommodations.
"If you look like a man and you live your life like
a man, you should be able to use a man's bathroom," said Dru Levasseur,
a transgender rights attorney for Lambda Legal, a national gay advocacy
group based in New York. "It's just common sense."
In Arizona, where Republicans control state
government, prominent GOP Rep. John Kavanagh said he was outraged by
Phoenix's effort to increase protections for transgender people. His
proposed law would make it a misdemeanor for a person to use a public
restroom, bathroom, shower, bath, dressing room or locker room
associated with a gender other than what's on his or her birth
certificate. An Arizona House of Representatives committee is scheduled
to consider the bill on Wednesday.
Kavanagh said government shouldn't allow people to
use facilities based on "you are what you think you are." He said he was
worried Phoenix's anti-discrimination ban would serve as a cover for
pedophiles who want to expose themselves to children of the opposite
gender.
"This law simply restores the law of society: Men
are men and women and women," he said. "For a handful of people to make
everyone else uncomfortable just makes no sense."
Police officers would be able to make judgment
calls about when to press charges when, say, a woman uses a men's
bathroom to avoid a long line, Kavanagh said.
Masen Davis, executive director for the Transgender
Law Center in San Francisco, said businesses have generally been more
active than governments in recognizing equal access rights for
transgender people, in some cases to avoid legal challenges. Davis said
Arizona's proposed ban would target people who look different,
regardless if they are transgender or not.
"No one should have to live in a world where they have to show their papers to pee," Davis said.
The term transgender covers men and women whose
identity does not match with their birth-assigned sex, including
cross-dressers and people who don't want to alter their bodies
hormonally or surgically.
Transgender people often have a hard time changing
the gender on a birth certificate because many states require proof of
gender treatment surgery, which is expensive and often not covered by
health insurance. Other states, including Idaho and Ohio, do not allow
birth certificate changes for gender, according to the American Civil
Liberties Union.
Equal access debates are playing out in states
across the country. Discriminating against transgender people is illegal
in at least 16 states. The protections vary. Minnesota prohibits
discrimination in employment, housing, education and public
accommodations, while Hawaii's law only applies to housing, according to
the ACLU.
More than 100 cities and counties have passed laws
prohibiting gender-identity discrimination, including Atlanta, New
Orleans and Dallas. Those laws are also not uniform. For example,
Baltimore County approved a measure in 2012 protecting transgender
people from discrimination. It did not apply to "distinctly private or
personal" facilities. Tennessee lawmakers tried going in the other
direction with a proposal similar to Arizona's in 2012, but it failed to
gain support.
Some state laws are being tested in court. In one
case, a Colorado family filed a complaint with the state's civil rights
office after their first-grader, who was born a boy, was prohibited from
using the girl's bathroom at her elementary school.
Opponents to equal access laws insist they do not
want to discriminate against any groups, but simply value public safety
for the majority over transgender rights.
Some fret the anti-discriminatory laws will force
businesses to spend many dollars on renovation projects in order to
provide unisex facilities and avoid complaints from customers who don't
want to share bathrooms and dressing rooms with transgender people. They
say Arizona's proposed law would instead protect businesses from bogus
complaints from people who aren't transgender.
"Someone can just say 'oh, I feel like I am a
woman,'" said Aaron Baer, a spokesman for the Center for Arizona Policy,
a powerful conservative group. "That person can just say, 'you are
discriminating against me.'"
Copyright 2013 The
Associated Press modified.
