Laura Portalupi

The provisions set forth in this bill do qualify as discrimination. Discrimination is not acceptable in any circumstance. Furthermore, the argument set forth in this bill that the form of discrimination proposed is for the purpose of physical safety is unsound and false. It is simply not borne out by evidence. The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law notes that "Transgender people [are] over four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crime." (https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/ncvs-trans-press-release/) In addition, evidence shows that state-level laws that permit discrimination against non-binary and trans people have led to an increase in suicide attempts among transgender and non-binary adults and youth. The abstract of this article published in a peer-reviewed journal – State-level anti-transgender laws increase past-year suicide attempts among transgender and non-binary young people in the USA (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-01979-5) – provides a good summary. In short: "Enacting state-level anti-transgender laws increased incidents of past-year suicide attempts among TGNB young people by 7–72%." A study conducted in Massachusetts found: "…the passage of such laws [on safety and privacy in public restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms] is not related to the number or frequency of criminal incidents in these spaces. Additionally, the study finds that reports of privacy and safety violations in public restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms are exceedingly rare. This study provides evidence that fears of increased safety and privacy violations as a result of nondiscrimination laws are not empirically grounded." This comes from another article in a peer-reviewed publication. The abstract is free to read here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-018-0335-z