st lu

As the child of a biracial couple who has faced severe discrimination, I am disgusted that my state would entertain denying a marginalized group the basic dignity to be treated fairly as members of our community. This law not only goes against basic sociology: gender and sex do not line up perfectly with every person. It ignores the reality that protecting the trans community from harassment and harm necessarily requires they be allowed to use the facilities of their identified gender. The insistence that trans women don't belong in female facilities becomes absurd for one simple reason: trans men and nonbinary individuals exist in almost equal amounts. You would force one group out of these areas to force another back in, gaining nothing but mistreatment in the process. It ignores the simple fact that we already have assault laws on the books, and singles out a group of humans who have overwhelmingly received harassment and harm in these recent years. It also ignores history. It ignores the generations of feminism that have already had this conversation with regards to black women, the lesbian community, the intersex community, and various other groups who went through the exact same struggle you now put in front of the trans community. Facilities bear no sexual or ideological purpose. Bathrooms are for simple biological realities of all genders, born of necessity. To imply trans people have breached some sensibility by using the facilities of their gender is to assume some greater purpose that the law does not already cover. At best, it is redundant. At worst it is disgustingly harmful. I oppose vehemently and strongly urge the committee to vote ITL