Why Arizona's Bathroom Bill Is Unconstitutional

neutrois:

Read the whole article, the Arizona #noloo4u debacle is very well explained in a legal sense. 

Almost as appalling was the designation of this bill as an emergency measure. The last time I checked, Governor Brewer never had to call out the National Guard to put down mobs of rampaging transsexuals in bathrooms.

Adding to the ludicrous nature of the bill is the fact that it creates a very soft definition of who can be discriminated against:

(a) An individual’s self identification as male, female or something in between and includes an individual’s appearance, mannerisms or other characteristics only insofar as they relate to gender with or without regard to the individual’s designated sex at birth.

This means that the bill makes it perfectly legal to tell non-transgender women and men they can’t use the bathroom if they do not meet some arbitrary standard for femininity or masculinity. Butch lesbian? Take a hike. Have polycystic ovarian syndrome or acromegaly? No loo for you. Teen boy who wears his hair long? Go use the women’s and hope your friends don’t ever find out you were forced to. Wearing sweat pants and a hoodie instead of a house dress? Beat it before I call the cops.

It isn’t hard to see how this bill has potential for extreme abuse.

Of course, most sane people would ask how this could be constitutional. They would be right. It probably isn’t.

…

It is easy to see how a clear analogy between Amendment 2 and SB1045 can be made. Given the lack of incidents where gender non-conforming people have caused harm in public spaces and the evident animus of the bill in attempting to single out a group, SB1045 seems to fail both constitutional tests miserably.

…

You wouldn’t think people with law degrees would pass legislation that is so blatantly unconstitutional.

Yet, here we are.

…

 This bathroom bill is a trial balloon. If it is not vigorously and immediately challenged legally, conservative states all over the country will follow suit with bills that are potentially even more regressive. Hopefully, progressive legal organizations have the will to rally us as strongly as they did the LGB community with Proposition 8 and DOMA.

And maybe, just maybe, the transgender community will have a Romer v. Evans to call their own.

(via midwestgenderqueer)

Source: neutrois

janetmock: Read this Village Voice cover story this morning and got my life + became a fan. Specifically here: “Quattlebaum says he hates … the field of queer studies along with it. ‘I have a lot of problems with the academic queer community because it’s a community that exists completely removed from reality,’ he says. ‘Those kids who are selling their bodies on the West Side Highway, on Christopher Street, they don’t even know what the fuck queer theory is.’” Hence our need to be rooted in grassroots, in the streets, in solidarity with those who are “marginalized.” I’m done with folks and organizations speaking our names and bodies in theory, in death, in stats. Yet ignoring the same folks they discuss in theory without ever knowing us, without ever trying to engage, without ever “outreaching,” without ever lending the stage and resources to us.  As a trans woman of color - no matter what space I enter - I have one stilletoed foot on the street. Always.
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janetmock:

Read this Village Voice cover story this morning and got my life + became a fan. Specifically here:

“Quattlebaum says he hates … the field of queer studies along with it. ‘I have a lot of problems with the academic queer community because it’s a community that exists completely removed from reality,’ he says. ‘Those kids who are selling their bodies on the West Side Highway, on Christopher Street, they don’t even know what the fuck queer theory is.’”

Hence our need to be rooted in grassroots, in the streets, in solidarity with those who are “marginalized.” I’m done with folks and organizations speaking our names and bodies in theory, in death, in stats. Yet ignoring the same folks they discuss in theory without ever knowing us, without ever trying to engage, without ever “outreaching,” without ever lending the stage and resources to us. 

As a trans woman of color - no matter what space I enter - I have one stilletoed foot on the street. Always.

(via midwestgenderqueer)

Source: janetmock

If the thesis is correct that gender is always performative, then our performed selves resonated with the queerest gender of all: that of total destroy. Henceforth our preferred gender pronouns are the sound of shattering glass, the weight of hammers in our hands, and the sickly-sweet aroma of shit on fire. Address us accordingly.
“My Preferred Gender Pronoun is Negation”, in the zine: Dangerous Spaces: Violent Resistance, Self-Defense, and Insurrectional Struggle Against Gender. (via shayrhymeswithgay)

(via foreverqueird)

Source: shayrhymeswithgay

19% of prime time television characters are non-human while only 17% are women

A Profile of Americans’ Media Use and Political Socialization Effects: television and the Internet’s relationship to social connectedness in the USA ― Daniel German & Caitlin Lally

There are more “non-humans” on TV than women. Talk about unequal gender representation in the media.

(via yourlittle-bird)

Wait wtf

(via bitch—craft)

(via fuzzyhorns)

Source: yourlittle-bird

I’m not necessarily “Queer” in Cherokee contexts, because differences are not seen in the same light as they are in Euroamerican contexts. I’m not necessarily “Transgender” in Cherokee contexts, because I’m simply the gender I am. I’m not necessarily “Gay,” because that word rests on the concept of men-loving-men, and ignores the complexity of my gender identity. It is only within the rigid gender regimes of white America that I become Trans or Queer.
Qwo-Li Driskill: “Stolen From Out Bodies: First Nations Two-Spirits/Queers and the Journey to a Sovereign Erotic” (via livelaughawesome)

(via genderfork)

Source: livelaughawesome

Pronunciation of the Letter "S" Influences How People See Your Gender

By Anna Pulley 

4541776945_b6bd97da4c_z.jpgnatanmac87/Flickr

Can you tell whether someone is male or female just from their voice? One of the more obvious cues our brains have when determining a person’s gender is whether their voice is high- or low-pitched. But a new study shows that the way we pronounce words, specifically the letter “s” can have just as much impact on how people perceive our gender.

Click the header link above to read the full article.