THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
(apologies to Keith Olbermann)
AZ State Rep. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills)
Last month, the City Council of Phoenix, Arizona passed sweeping nondiscrimination protections, ensuring that people have equal access to employment, housing, and public accommodations regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. One state lawmaker, Rep. John Kavanagh (R) is not pleased that transgender people will be protected when using the correct bathroom, and so he has introduced a new bill to ban them from doing just that. Kavanagh gutted a Senate Bill about a Massage Therapy Board to use as a shell for his new amendment, which prohibits a person from entering a “public restroom, bathroom, shower, bath, dressing room, or locker room” if the sex designation of that facility does not match the individual’s birth certificate.
Oh, I suppose I could begin by cutting Rep. Kavanagh some slack. I could assume that he’s gone crazy from the Arizona heat. I could assume that he honestly feels that all of Arizona’a other pressing problems have been solved. That would mean it’s the perfect time to take on the issue of appropriate use of gender-specific restrooms.
Or I could just drop the pretense and call Kavanagh’s bill what it is- today’s “WTF??” moment.
Yeah, so how’s that “small government” thing working out for you?
Evidently, Kavanagh is worried that people who are “different” will use the “wrong” restroom, thereby placing the tender sensibilities of “normal” people in peril. Left undefined is exactly how Kavanagh intends for enforcement of this bill to work? Perhaps Arizona’s Republicans can find the money to station a peace officer outside every rest room? And perhaps anyone hoping to relieve themselves in a public restroom in Arizona will now be required to carry a copy of their birth certificate with them?
Kavanagh, of course, has a ready defense for his bill handy:
The city of Phoenix has crafted a bill that allows people to define their sex by what they think in their head. If you’re a male, you don’t go into a female shower or locker room, or vice versa. It also raises the specter of people who want to go into those opposite sex facilities not because they’re transgender, but because they’re weird.
Oh, so it’s all about protect the good and decent “normal” people of Arizona from those who are “weird?” Never mind that there are already laws on the books in Arizona desgned to prevent harmful, inappropriate, or potentially invasive behavior in public restrooms. Could it be that Kavanagh really just finds the whole idea of transgender individuals “icky” and “weird?” It’s difficult to understand how a reasonable person could believe that this sort of thing is something government should be involved in…never mind the challenges and silliness that would characterize the enforcement of Kavanagh’s bill.
It would appear that Republicans are ALL about small government…unless we’re talking about your bedroom or bathroom habits.
So what have we learned? Well, if you’re traveling to Arizona and you think you might at some point need to use a public restroom, you’d best be carrying a copy of your birth certificate. Or you could just hold it until you get to New Mexico. Good luck with that.
