MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUTS

(Photo: mechanikat)Some people are just very touchy about their toileting, enough to make discriminating against transgender students a priority -- and further stigmatizing them in the process.

According to the Provo Utah Daily Herald, Utah State Rep. Mike Kennedy wants to legally force transgender school students to use separately designated washrooms:

The bill looks to define gender under state code. The legislation states gender means the male or female phenotype designated by an individual's birth certificate. If it is not designated on the certificate then the student would need to have a signed document from a physician indicating their gender. The student then would only be allowed to use the bathroom that is the same as their medically designated gender.

The bill specifically states that gender does not mean an individual's own opinion on their gender....

Kennedy, a medical doctor by profession, said it makes sense the he would be the one to run this legislation as he can speak in medical terms as to what gender a person, medically speaking, would be identified as.

Kennedy, in short, would it make a legal issue as to what students could use which washrooms based on, no doubt, the filing of birth certificates at school.

Talk about big brother government!

Yesterday, BuzzFlash at Truthout wrote about how at a Utah school, students (whose parents weren't up to date in lunch fees) had their meals given to them, then they were confiscated and thrown in the garbage. (Public pressure apparently has resulted in at least one of the persons involved in this cruel travesty being suspended, with further investigation going on.)

Now, in the same state, a legislator is offering another harsh lesson in intolerance.

Teenage years are a difficult, often psychologically dangerous rite of passage. It is especially so for young people who have the courage to emerge into identities for which they will face humiliation and discrimination from biased fellow students and adults.

For a doctor/legislator to make this into some sort of legal/biological screening issue is particularly cruel.

It would appear that many legislators spend far too much time on bills that would hurt people and move the nation backward, rather than energetically creating and passing bills that would move us all forwards together.

Transgender students don't need politicians telling them which washroom to use. And we don't need legislators wasting time (and we pay their salaries) on laws that derive from legalizing our phobias instead of embracing our diverse identities.

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