In minutes, the House Committee on Appropriations is expected to may way for SB1432, that sneaky little amendment that’s going to mandate what bathrooms we can used based on our birth certificate.

Here’s the press released issued by Wingspan late yesterday, followed after the jump with a letter from James Scott P. Pignatella, who gave us his OK to share it on the Range.

Say “No” to Arizona Legislation SB1432:

The freedom to access public spaces without fear of persecution is a fundamental human right. If
approved, this legislation would deny safety to countless Arizonans and disproportionately
expose transgender and gender diverse people to harassment and discrimination.
—Casey Chimneystar Condit, Programs Manager, Wingspan

Tucson, AZ March 19, 2013, Wingspan, Southern Arizona’s LGBT Community Center, takes a
stand in opposition to SB1432, a State Bill that would mandate Arizonan’s to use only the public
facilities (including bathrooms, locker rooms and dressing rooms) that match their birth
certificate.

What’s happened?
The Center for Arizona Policy has filed a use of public facilities (including restrooms, dressing
rooms and locker rooms) bill in the state legislature that is an assault on the transgender and
gender non-conforming population of this state.

There is a hearing on this bill in the AZ House Committee on Appropriations on Wednesday,
March 20th at 2:00 p.m. Wingspan and the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance are asking that
our community come together and stand up against this legislation.

Why is this a problem?

This bill would make it a misdemeanor to use a restroom, locker room, or dressing room “that a
sign indicates that the room is for the exclusive use of persons of one sex and the person is not
legally classified on the person’s birth certificate as a member of that sex.”

This bill is in conflict with the newly passed nondiscrimination law in Phoenix and the current
city wide law in Tucson. It would put transgender and gender non-conforming folks in danger of
harassment and violence regardless of the restroom they use.

It will disproportionately impact transgender people and gender non-conforming people, which is selective enforcement against a harmless, struggling community. And this isn’t just about transgendered folks, but about folks who are gender fluid/gender non-conforming who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and even our heterosexual allies! This is discrimination that will affect our entire community. The legislation indicates that “this act is an emergency measure that is necessary to preserve the public peace, health or safety.” This legislation solves no problem. There are no documented incidents of anyone being harmed in this state from a transgender person using a public restroom.
It is unconstitutional per the Romer v. Evans decision to write a law that specifically attacks a minority.

What can we do?
• Attend the AZ Trans Alliance planning meeting in Phoenix tonight at One Voice Community
Center (1VCC) Tuesday, March 19, 2013, at 6:00 PM to discuss this crisis. 4442 N. 7th Ave.,
Phoenix, AZ.

• Attend the rally at the State Capitol at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, March 20, 2013. 1700 W.
Washington, Phoenix, Arizona, 85007

• Come to TransAction Day at the University of Arizona Mall tomorrow, Wednesday, March
20, 2013, between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM and show your support.

• Share this information with your friends and family and help get the word out in our
community.

• Please call and/or write to committee members today:
Chairman: John Kavanagh (R) jkavanagh@azleg.gov 602-926-5170
Vice-Chair: Justin Olson (R) jolson@azleg.gov 602-926-5288
Lela Alston (D) lalston@azleg.gov 602-926-5829
Rick Gray (R) rgray@azleg.gov 602-926-5993
Michelle Ugenti (R) mugenti@azleg.gov 602-926-4480
Paul Boyer (R) pboyer@azleg.gov 602-926-4173
Adam Kwasman (R) akwasman@azleg.gov 602-926-5839
Chad Campbell (D) chcampbell@azleg.gov 602-926-3026
Stefanie Mach (D) smach@azleg.gov 602-926-3398
Thomas Foreset (R) tforese@azleg.gov 602-926-5168
Andrew Sherwood (D) asherwood@azleg.gov 602-926-3028

For more information, please contact:
Rae Strozzo
Southern Arizona Gender Alliance Program Coordinator, Wingspan
(520) 624-1779 x120, rstrozzo@sagatucson.org
Casey Chimneystar Condit
Programs Manager
Wingspan, Southern Arizona’s LGBT Community Center
(520) 624-1779 x127, ccondit@wingspan.org

Members of the AZ House Committee:

I am writing you today in regards to SB1432.
I can not express how outraged I am over this bill’s content.

With everything else that is going on in our state that deserves attention, from finances, keeping our government running, fixing roads and infrastructure, improving our schools and the education of our kids for the next generation, you see fit to waste time debating the rights of people to be able to use a public restroom. How incredibly short sighted!

It is appallingly obvious that the only targets in this bill are transgender people – or anyone else “perceived” to not meet someone else’s gender presentation standards. This is a minority of a minority population in our state to begin with. I assume that the framers of this bill have vitriolically decided to target “dangerous transpeople” – despite the fact that there never has been a recorded problem of a transgender person assaulting anyone else; in fact, the opposite is usually true; transgender people, or those who don’t conform to rigid gender stereotypes, are generally in the most danger from nothing more than the most basic human act of needing to relieve themselves. I’m sure the framers of this are also not thinking about folks who were born with any one of dozens of intersex syndromes, which are also recognized medical conditions, the same as gender identity disorder, who may not have a birth certificate that matches who they are now.

This is a minority population that, quite honestly, already struggles enough with day to day living without additional prejudice being put into Arizona law.

How are you planning on enforcing this law, should you pass it? Are you planning on starting a “gender police” state where people will have to present paperwork or be physically patted down to use a restroom? Let me assure you, that while you think might be able to “tell” that some people are “not the same gender as their birth certificate stated”; there are many more that you would never be able to tell just by looking at them. (Do you clock every one’s racial background correctly 100% of the time too? OH, by the way, is enforcing prejudice over perceived gender much different than prejudice over perceived race?)

Please think about the waste of time and resources as well as the inherent prejudice that this bill is trying to put into Arizona law. Government intrusion into people’s lives should be kept to a minimum, intrusion into someone’s pants or skirts is going too far.

Regards,

James Scott P. Pignatella

This article appears in Mar 14-20, 2013.

7 replies on “SB1432: Spawn of Satan, er, Center for Arizona Policy”

  2. Its devastating to know that I and other trans individuals have to show birth certificates to use a restroom. I have been taking this journey since 4years old, I cross many obstacles with name changes and therapy and not to mention the bullying and worring about my safety, I understand that filing papers are approriate for name changes, but to show birth certificate to utilize a public restoom is just disgusting, its very sad that Mr. Kavanaugh is trying to pass a bill of this sort, when there are other bills that should be of the ought most importance. I feel very violated as an Arizonian.

  3. I made 13 telephone calls to the committee this morning (used the list posted in your previous edition) stating my opposition to SB1432. Time for the rest of you to call–it took all of 15 minutes.

  4. I emailed and went to phx.
    And have passed this info to everyone I know.
    Lela Alston is the only one to have responded yet, with a strongly worded show of support for Arizona’s transgendered community. THANK YOU LELA ALSTON!

  5. Following message sent yesterday to members of House Judiciary Committee:

    I sit here in the privacy of my own home, where I have three possible rooms to visit if called by nature, none of them off limits to me unless occupied by another person.

    However, I am not always at home and I have at times felt a certain sense of urgency when no restroom has been immediately available except one designated for exclusive use by women, and I’m a man. I confess that on more than one occasion, realizing that said restroom was unoccupied, I have entered for the purpose for which the room was designated. At such times I was not aware of committing any unnatural or immoral act. Had I believed my action to be illegal I’d probably have willingly and with malice aforethought broken the law, all the while believing such law to be idiotic.

    I have visited and lived in various countries around the world and can say with some degree of knowledge that our American attitudes toward restrooms and their segregation are relatively unusual and quite prudish. I trust you gentlefolk are not going to add to the puzzlement with which much of the country and the world look upon our state by adding to our statutes the bit of nonsense amended into SB 1432.

    Thank you for the anticipated exhibition of good old fashioned common sense you will engage in when you vote NO on this thoroughly silly proposal.

  6. Don’t we just live in an insane world where right is wrong and wrong is right. Have to wonder how many transgender even use these restrooms etc. Most people prefer to use their own bathrooms….amazing how anyone got along before all this insanity.

  7. As a female-to-male transperson, I will be more than happy to use the women’s toilets, as they are usually a lot cleaner and more pleasant than the men’s rooms; HOWEVER, Rep. John Kavanagh, I doubt your wife/mother/daughter/sister will be thrilled to see my 6′, 185# balding self popping out of the stalls in the ladies room. I can’t wait for hilarity to ensue when the police are called and I get to show the F for female which still remains on my driver’s license. Be careful what you ask for, you may get it.

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