An Arizona lawmaker has proposed a bill
which would make it a misdemeanor to use the wrong bathroom.
Republican Representative John Kavanagh
on Monday introduced the bill. It seeks to make it a misdemeanor for
a person to use a public bathroom, shower, or locker room associated
with a gender other than what it states on his or her birth
certificate. A House panel will consider the bill on Wednesday.
Kavanagh said the measure was needed to
counter an ordinance approved last month by the City of Phoenix which
prohibits discrimination in public accommodations based on gender
identity.
“The City of Phoenix has crafted a
bill that allows people to define their sex by what they think in
their head,” Kavanagh told NBC12. “And if you're a male, you
don't go into a female shower or locker room, and vice versa.”
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton replied in a
statement that “Inappropriate behavior in Phoenix was illegal
[before the ordinance] and is still illegal.”
Erica Keppler, a transgender woman who
fought for passage of the ordinance, called the move “mean-spirited.”
“It's a mean-spirited bill targeting
an absolutely harmless population,” Keepler said. “Six months in
jail, $2,500 fine for just going in to pee.”
“Now anybody aware that I'm a
transgender person could have me arrested for simply having gone into
the restroom,” she added.