Grow Up! Florida Legislators Need To Get Over Potty Issues

Potty issues are apparently a big political concern here in Florida.

When I first moved to Florida from the liberal Northeast, I became involved in the campaign to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. I thought it was a no-brainer. But while phone banking I encountered numerous people arguing with a straight face that passing the ERA would mean unisex bathrooms. I was astounded. Well, now we have plenty of unisex bathrooms in this country and the world didn't end.

Yet Florida legislators haven't gotten over their potty issues. Last year, a bill that would have made it a crime to use a bathroom marked for the opposite sex passed one committee before dying a well-deserved death in another. The bill was so poorly written that it would have been a crime to change a male baby's diaper in a women's restroom. All for the purpose of harassing the transgendered.

Just when I thought the worst of the potty issues had come and gone, this happened: a bill to make LGBT discrimination illegal in Florida failed because Florida legislators fear they'll pick up gay cooties in the potty. Well, okay, they didn't actually say cooties. But, in the words of one Republican lawmaker, “you could have a lot of weirdos doing weird things in bathrooms.” These legislators claim they fear that men could dress up as women and really be sexual predators out to attack women in bathroom stalls. Alrighty then.

Here's the thing. Sexual predators could do that very thing right now. There's nothing to stop them other than that it's already illegal to sexually assault people, whether in restrooms or elsewhere. And there has not been a single reported instance of any attack by a transgender person against a person of the opposite sex in any restroom in any state where LGBT anti-discrimination laws have passed. Not one. Zero. Zip.

I'm way more concerned for the transgender man who identifies as a woman and the post-op transgender woman who dress as females yet have to use the men's room. Not only are they being forced to put themselves at risk of physical or mental abuse, but isn't that more disturbing to men and women than just letting people use the potty they feel comfortable using?

The argument, in short, is specious. Which brings me back to cooties. Because that's the only explanation I can come up with for this silly argument. Yet we are continuing to allow legalized discrimination against gay workers in Florida all because Florida legislators haven't gotten over their potty issues.

So I say to Florida legislators, grow up! Get over your potty issues and pass a law that most of Florida's major corporations support and that will actually benefit voters in our state.