Is this what the fuss is about?

[aesmael]

    According to Wikipedia, these are the contentious passages of that proposed U.S. ENDA law:

Section 3 (a) (6) GENDER IDENTITY- The term `gender identity' means the gender-related identity, appearance, or mannerisms or other gender-related characteristics of an individual, with or without regard to the individual's designated sex at birth.

Section 8(a)(3) CERTAIN SHARED FACILITIES- Nothing in this Act shall be construed to establish an unlawful employment practice based on actual or perceived gender identity due to the denial of access to shared shower or dressing facilities in which being seen fully unclothed is unavoidable, provided that the employer provides reasonable access to adequate facilities that are not inconsistent with the employee's gender identity as established with the employer at the time of employment or upon notification to the employer that the employee has undergone or is undergoing gender transition, whichever is later.

Section 8(a)(4) DRESS AND GROOMING STANDARDS- Nothing in this Act shall prohibit an employer from requiring an employee, during the employee's hours at work, to adhere to reasonable dress or grooming standards not prohibited by other provisions of Federal, State, or local law, provided that the employer permits any employee who has undergone gender transition prior to the time of employment, and any employee who has notified the employer that the employee has undergone or is undergoing gender transition after the time of employment, to adhere to the same dress or grooming standards for the gender to which the employee has transitioned or is transitioning.

    So far as I can see, all it says is that employers have to let people have the same freedom to dress as the same gender they [simplified] do at all other times, and that they are permitted to segregate trans people from other people in change rooms and showers provided they let them use some other facility. This is awful enough to need cutting from a law before prohibiting people from discriminating in the workplace over who sleeps with who outside it?

Comments

[taraxoxo.livejournal.com]

I pray that they won't cut this bit out, because this will still do a lot of good. It's not as good as the laws we have in here, Canada or Europe (which generally state that you can't disadvantage tg people rather than just let them dress properly), but remember they will apply to the deep south and midwest too, most of which currently do not even have any protection at all. And those places do regularly fire people even for private 'crossdressing'. And it is these places that need the law because most of the liberal states and cities already have up to standard laws.

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

For the people making all the fuss (including Barney Frank), It's all about penises, and taking them where they're "not supposed" to go.

That's it.

[aesmael.livejournal.com]

Well, we would not want to any one to be uncomfortable, would we?

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

No, it doesn't make sense.
Opposition to it is purely subjective.
"It's wrong because it:
A) Offends my sensibilities.
B)It's not in the bible.
C)Ann Coulter said it is wrong.

[aesmael.livejournal.com]

And we can't even turn those stupid rumours/jokes about Ann Coulter to our favour because she has a history of being opposed to her own rights.

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

How about trying to get Anne to oppose herself?

[whimsical-esper.livejournal.com]

Yup, and not only will this section be cut, but the remaining weaker bill will be vetoed anyway, since discriminating on such things is apparently a family value. Welcome to the land of the free and the home of the brave...

"The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word 'free' to a note so high nobody can reach it. That was deliberate. Nothing on earth sounds less like freedom to me."
-Belize, Angels in America

~S

[aesmael.livejournal.com]

That is the kind of speech that stays with you.

[lost-angelwings.livejournal.com]

They all suck >:O