Monday, February 09, 2015

Why I Will Never Vote Republican

Did you see the bill (HB 583) that a Republican Florida state legislator introduced?
Anti-Transgender Bill Is for Knuckle-Draggers, Surely Not for Florida
Sunshine State News
By: Nancy Smith
Posted: February 6, 2015

It's hard to fathom why any legislator in the 21st century would want discrimination as part of his legacy, but Rep. Frank Artiles apparently has his reasons.

The Miami Republican, chairman of the House Economic Development and Tourism Subcommittee, this week introduced a bill that would invalidate protections for transgender Floridians and criminalize the use of public restrooms by transgender people.

It basically would write transphobic discrimination into state law.
The article goes on to ask the question what will happen if a non-trans person is detained,
Said Daniel Tilley, LGBT rights staff attorney for the ACLU, "In addition to dehumanizing transgender people in particular, it invites humiliation and harassment of anyone who is not considered sufficiently feminine or masculine in the eyes of the beholder. Will girls in soccer uniforms be stopped at the bathroom door and asked to produce their birth certificates?"

Tilley further explains, “This bill also puts the burden on business owners to monitor customers’ use of restrooms and ask intrusive and humiliating questions of customers or be at risk of liability. That’s not good for business, much less for the customers themselves, whether transgender or not. The bill would essentially require everyone to carry their birth certificate around so that other citizens can subject them to random interrogations in the restroom.”
Could they get sued if they stop the wrong person? What would happen if I got stopped and my Connecticut driver license has an “F” on it? Connecticut law recognizes me as female and under "Full Faith and Credit Clause" of the Constitution doesn’t Florida also have to recognize me as female? The clause states,
Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.
It seems to me that this proposed law will create all types of legal nightmare not just for the trans people but also for all the other citizen of the state of Florida.

This bill is just another mean spirited Republican bill.

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