Gender: Kansas Town to Consider ‘Bathroom Bill’
On Tuesday, the city commission of Lawrence, Kan., will discuss a “gender-identity” antidiscrimination ordinance affecting employment, housing and public accommodations.
If the commission chooses to adopt it, it would open the door to lawsuits being levied against employers, landlords and businesses across the city by people claiming they were discriminated against because of their perceived gender identity. For example, a man who self-identifies as a woman could sue a gym for not allowing him to change clothes or use the restroom in the women’s locker room — a scenario that’s earned proposals of this sort the nickname “bathroom bills.”
The council voted in 2009 not to adopt the ordinance because it was considered too inflammatory to do it before the 2010 City Commission elections. This April, about 50 people attended an informational meeting about the proposal — including Judy Smith of Concerned Women for America of Kansas.
“Generally speaking, it was fairly civil,” she said. But when a representative from the Alliance Defense Fund pointed out how laws like this violate other people’s rights, a transgendered woman responded, “ ‘No one should have the right to refuse us anything.’ She was perfectly serious.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Download the Sept. 27 Lawrence City Commission Agenda [1].
Boulder, Colo., passed a bathroom bill several years ago. For a more detailed look at the ramifications of these laws, read CitizenLink Director Tom Minnery’s letter to The Denver Post [2].