The Butt Of A Joke…

By Utah legislators whose tweets were offensive.

Utah Lawmakers Joke About Being Transgender On Twitter
UPR
By Elaine Taylor   
February 3, 2014

Two Utah lawmakers generated outrage on Monday after jokingly commenting about changing genders on Twitter. This morning State Rep. Jacob Anderegg posted to the social media site said he was "strongly considering a gender identifying change" so that he could use the women’s restroom because the men’s was occupied.

"Switching your gender identity? Just can’t keep up with you. You’re a new man! Erm…woman," said State Sen. Wayne Neiderhauser via Twitter in response to Anderegg's comment.

Rep. Anderegg later blamed an intern for the tweet. Both legislators have apologized and Sen. Neiderhauser has offered to speak to trans-activists. It was announced that there will be a meeting for legislative interns with Equality Utah; I think the legislators should also attend, they can use a little education.

There are two bills before the Utah legislature, the first is SB100 a bill to add protection for sexual orientation and gender identity for housing and employment. The other bill is HB87 that requires trans-students to use segregated bathrooms; the schools would have to provide “alternate bathroom accommodations” and says “prohibit a student from using a gender-segregated public school bathroom that does not correspond to the student’s phenotype.” Both bills are being held hostage until the courts settle the marriage equality case.