In the Florida House last week, a bill was manufactured by Republican Frank Artiles that gives a whole new meaning to discrimination. HB 583, entitled “Single-Sex Public Facilities,” would make it so a person must use a public facility that aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth.
The summary of the bill reads that the “use of single-sex facilities be restricted to persons of the sex for which facility is designated” and “prohibits knowingly and willfully entering single-sex public facility designated for or restricted to persons of other biological sex.”
Essentially, this bill makes it so that transgender people cannot use the bathroom in public spaces. Even people who have had sex reassignment surgery cannot use the appropriate restroom because they must use the facility that corresponds with their biological sex at birth.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Florida for more than one month now, so this bill comes at a time when progress is being made for the LGBT community.
Artiles would like to see us move backward. He argues his bill is meant for public safety because anti-discrimination ordinances in Florida have allowed for a “giant loophole for criminals, sexual deviants and sexual predators to walk into a shower, a woman’s locker room under the cover of law.” Artiles is extremely misguided in his analysis of these loopholes, as very few people — especially those in the transgender community — use these ordinances to commit sexual crimes.
In fact, violence is a daily struggle for transgender people, especially youths. A 2011 survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality found that 78 percent of K-12 transgender individuals faced harassment at some point in their lives and, even more heartbreaking, that 35 percent had experienced physical assault. If anyone should be concerned about criminals using these ordinances to commit violence, it should be the transgender community.
Artiles is basically implying that transgendered people tend to be perverts who will use their situation to perpetrate acts of sexual violence, which is outrageously wrong. Transgender does not equate to being a sexual predator. Everyone agrees that sexual predators — whether heterosexual, homosexual, transgender or anything else in between — should be locked up and left to rot in prison.
The bill goes on to expand that public facilities include any place in schools or businesses. This bill would put an incredible burden on businesses to monitor bathrooms and deny transgender employees entrance into the bathroom.
Tony Lima, executive director of Safeguarding American Values for Everyone — or SAVE — said HB 583 would “force businesses to discriminate against their own employees and customers, and invalidate nondiscrimination policies that already exist on the local level.” If transgender people used the bathroom in a public space, they could be charged with a misdemeanor of the first degree and face civil action. This could mean fines, up to one year in prison and extravagant legal fees — all because someone had to pee.
Regardless of your personal feelings toward the LGBT community, this legislation should worry you and everyone else. It stands against everything we hold dear about living in America and in Florida. America should be a place where no one is discriminated against, and everyone is free to do whatever he or she pleases so long as it does not harm others.
The Constitution of the State of Florida preamble says that the state will “guarantee equal civil and political rights to all,” and if we truly believe in that, a bill like HB 583 must be called out by everyone and fought against.
As a society, we have made great strides toward more tolerance and acceptance of those who are perceived to be different. Florida is such a great state to live in because we are a melting pot that encourages diversity, and that is a tradition that must live on.
Nick Eagle is a UF economics and political science senior. His column appears on Mondays.
[A version of this story ran on page 7 on 2/9/2015 under the headline “New single-sex restroom bill in Florida House discriminatory"]
