You may have heard of the Kentucky “Bathroom Bill”:
In a rebuke to a Louisville high school, a Kentucky lawmaker is sponsoring a bill that would ban transgender students from using school restrooms that don’t correspond to their anatomical sex.
The “Kentucky Student Privacy Act,” proposed by State Sen. C.B. Embry Jr., R-Morgantown, also would allow students to sue the school for $2,500 when they encounter a person of the opposite biological sex in a bathroom or locker room if staff have allowed it or failed to prohibit it.
That bill came up for a committee vote today in Frankfort. One of the students from that Louisville high school testified today in front of the committee of Kentucky lawmakers before they voted today on passing that horrible bill on to the full State Senate.
“I don’t believe I should have to accommodate their hatred,” transgender student Henry Brousseau on students uncomfortable sharing restroom
— Joe Arnold (@joearnoldreport) February 19, 2015
And the vote this afternoon?
senate bill 76 fails to get required 7 votes (6), so it fails. pic.twitter.com/VnjsX2EaD3
— Joe Arnold (@joearnoldreport) February 19, 2015
It seems Henry’s testimony was the crucial factor.
Henry is CRUSHING it. #bathroombill #kyga15 pic.twitter.com/kpiU4LluDi
— Belle of Louisville (@Katie_kate1043) February 19, 2015
And for at least today, my state did the right thing for once. Henry Brousseau, we salute you for your service to the Commonwealth and generally being an awesome human being.
ET
I guess they wanted the few students statewide that may be impacted by this to shit on the hallway floor or go out to the bushes outside the building.
ranchandsyrup
keep shining light on the state legislatures. the next librul frontier.
Bobby B.
Flush ’em all and let God sort ’em out!
Tree With Water
Bravo, Brousseau. Now everyone leave the teenager alone, and give him space to grow into an even more awesome individual.
boatboy_srq
@ET: That’d be an instant misdemeanor, and a night of BLEEP-shaming in a cell someplace.
boatboy_srq
Most awesome statement I’ve heard today.
Roger Moore
@ET:
No, they want to force them to conform and use the “right” bathroom. They basically don’t believe that trans people actually exist as a real category, and people who claims to be trans are just perverts who get their jollies by cross dressing and using the wrong bathroom. They’re sure they can “fix” trans people with sufficient coercion, and school is a place where they can coerce them.
Paul in KY
Mr. Brousseau is a very courageous young man. I’ve testified in front of one of those committees (as an LRC intern many years ago) and it is a scary situation (all these legislators popping questions at you) and my testimony was very mundane compared to his.
Villago Delenda Est
Henry is awesome, but the six sacks of shit who voted for that bill are not so much.
Belafon
Maybe we should start a campaign that replaces the bathroom signs with penis and vagina images in states that want to pass these laws.
gelfling545
Even if, dog forbid, one wanted for some reason to promote this bigotry this alone
would, you’d think, keep anyone from voting for it. You’d have kids who are definitely not trans trying to get past staff every week just to set up a lawsuit scenario (or just for the hell of it).
Either Embry never went to High School or is a partner in a firm trying to drum up a little extra trade.
Botsplainer
I think that committee has a 10-4 GOP advantage.
Wow!
Roger Moore
@gelfling545:
Not quite. The language says that they can be sued if they failed to prohibit it, not if they failed to prevent it. IOW, school districts that try to be sensitive to transgender students and let them use the facilities for the gender they identify with could be sued, but ones that have rules forcing them to use the facilities for their anatomical gender couldn’t be sued if somebody broke the rules by going into the wrong facility. Frankly, remembering what I was like at that age, setting up a lawsuit would have been the last thought in my mind if I were going into the girls locker room.
Belafon
My first attempt obviously was too vulgar for Word Press’s feelings:
Maybe we should start a campaign that replaces the bathroom signs with male part and lady part images in states that want to pass these laws. I can just imagine the stylize version of these: A long rounded bar for men, and some concentric circles for women.
Mike G
@ET:
Where they’ll find Embry peeking in the window.
Honestly, what grown adult is sick enough to spend time thinking about activities in high school bathrooms?
Villago Delenda Est
@Mike G:
Middle aged white Christian Rethuglicans.
That’s who.
Luthe
Somewhere in Kentucky, a contractor is bitching about how his sweet deal to install single stall, unisex bathrooms in high schools across the state just fell through.
chopper
i’m sure the CIA is waist-deep in this one.
mai naem mobile
I’m so glad that these idiots have so much time to waste on crap like this because i know there are so many transgendered kids out there that can’t be accomodated by the school in some decent creative manner right? Jeezus christ. I bet this stupid shit doesn’t even come up in other modern countries.
Mike in NC
It’s just a matter of time before wingnuts in some southern statehouse propose putting these “new” labels on public restrooms: WHITE and BLACK
Mr. Longform
@Mike in NC:
you misspelled “colored” there …
NCSteve
Well, that’s their entire quota of right things done used up for this session.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mr. Longform: We have to include the ay-rabs, the meskins, the eye-tal-ians, the redskins, and all other melanin surplus people.
BethanyAnne
Thanks for linking this Zandar. I heard that the bill came up, but not that it failed.
Jado
“And for at least today, my state did the right thing for once”
FALSE. Your state didn’t do the “right thing” The right thing would have been for ALL of the other legislators to point and laugh at the sponsor of this mean-spirited dreck and then tear it up in front of his face. His constituents then could have patted him on the back and promised that he could keep his job for the next two years as long as he sits quietly in the corner and doesn’t interfere with the grown-ups as they try to steer the ship of state away from the rocks. The “right thing” would have been for EVERYONE in the state to quietly pull him aside and ask him what the fuck he’s doing shaming KIDS.
The “right thing” would have been if this idea never saw the light of day because everyone who worked with this ass explained to him how hateful and cruel it was, and that they would publicize pictures of him with a goat if he went public with it, even if they had to photoshop it.
The simple fact that Henry Brousseau’s testimony was REQUIRED before anyone thought that MAYBE this was a bad idea means that your state is a damned sight far away from doing the “right thing”
And if you think I am picking on your state, I just want to come out and say that I am from New Jersey, where we elected Christie twice. Christie, who killed a new train tunnel into NYC because it “might cost the state” and then turned around and cut taxes on the wealthy because the state apparently doesn’t need extra cash, or some other reason that is IN NO WAY similar to “because my rich friends paid for my election and I need to pay them back”
Which state is currently doing the right thing? Cause I don’t see a lot of “right things” being done anywhere in this country.
And the idea that dodging this bullet of stupid and mean could be described as “the right thing” is depressing.
Jamey
Sorry, but “Kentucky Bathroom Bill” sounds like a nickname for the Bluegrass State’s own version of Larry Craig.