If you think you might need to use a public restroom while you’re out and about, you might want to make sure you have your birth certificate handy, reports the Arizona Daily Star.
“A House panel will consider legislation today to make it a crime to enter a public restroom designated for one gender or the other if you are “not legally classified” on your birth certificate as a member of that sex. The measure, SB 1432, also would apply to showers, baths, dressing rooms or locker rooms marked “men” or “women.”
“The move comes a month after the Phoenix City Council voted 5-3 to extend its anti-discrimination laws to those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. Foes quickly dubbed it the “bathroom bill,” saying the provisions about public accommodations could result in businesses being prosecuted for refusing to let transgender men use the women’s restroom.
“Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said the state needs to step in. Otherwise, he said, any man who simply “thinks of himself” as a woman could be free to go into a women’s locker room and disrobe.”That’s unacceptable behavior,” he said.
“Tucson has had an ordinance similar to the new Phoenix law since 1999, and Liana Perez, director of equal opportunity programs, said she has never seen anyone raise an issue or file a complaint about who gets to use which bathroom.”