Today, we recall the legislation of HB2, the Charlotte bathroom bill, or more officially, as the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act. It stated that transgender people who had not made explicit change to the gender noted on their birth certificates, had no right to use the bathroom according to their identified gender. After its passing, this bill stripped the rights from transgender people all over North Carolina before they were even explicitly protected by the law, and protests followed.
Now, the nation is still feeling the aftershocks of this discriminating legislation. It focused people onto either protesting for the rights of transgender communities, or standing firm on their distaste, distrust, and disbelief toward them. The struggles that many transgender people face are put into a new light, at times more public, more scrutinized, and more resonating.
Janus Rose, one tech researcher based in New York, reported on her Twitter that the State Department “retroactively invalidated” the change of gender marker on her passport from the previous year, refusing to renew her passport — the second reported transgender person who has been denied a passport this year. The original tweet is below:
This is the reality of many transgender folks — they have to jump through bureaucratic hoops on a systemic level, in order to gain access to the most fundamental rights guaranteed to others. It creates a burden that projects toward every aspect of life. From employment, housing, and social benefits to profiling by the TSA, sexual assault, or the act of getting singled out; there requires a myriad of ways transgender people need to not only be affirmed, but to be celebrated of their basic humanity.
Many argue that gender should not be on the passport at all, not only because there is no way to determine the validity of gender by the Department of Justice, but also because it is steadfastly being used against transgender people and their right to travel. This proves that the idea of protection under law is notional and discriminatory against marginalized groups of people. Systemically, it makes it more difficult for certain people to obtain the same rights. And socially, it perpetuates gender norms, deeming the act of deviating from these norms unworthy of rights that are offered to the majority, further cornering the already marginalized.
It is undeniable that such acts of intolerance will cause ripple effects on the ability of trans people to simply work, travel, live, and avoiding being brutalized. In order to stop this from happening, Rose argues that [the trans community] should stop looking to the states to install those rights for them, but instead to demand and then assert those rights by any means necessary.
To read the news article on Rose, refer to this link
