Do not sacrifice the rule for the exception
By Senator Phil Williams
Guest Commentary
Across our nation there is a deafening debate about the “rights” of those who claim a gender preference or identity other than the one with which they were born. Make no mistake: it is a debate that is happening even here in the very conservative state of Alabama. As I write this, a big-box retailer with multiple outlets in this state has decided to make all of their multi-stall restrooms unisex, with a complete disregard for long-standing law, tradition, and biology. More egregiously, this decision was made with no concern for the privacy and security concerns of their customers. In essence, Target has thrown out the rule in favor of the exception.
In North Carolina, the city of Charlotte passed an ordinance requiring public restrooms to allow persons to use bathrooms according to their own gender self-identification. So if a man identified as a woman, the city of Charlotte would force a restaurant owner to allow the man identifying as a woman to use the ladies’ restroom. Sensibly, the North Carolina legislature passed a law requiring people to use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender on their birth certificate, thus overriding the city of Charlotte’s dangerous ordinance. That law is being litigated even now and Alabama must be ready by the next legislative session to deal with the outcome.
Senator Phil Williams
Today, after careful research and review, I have filed a bill to deal with this issue in Alabama. I admire the stand made by the North Carolina legislature. But I chose to come at the problem from a different angle in the event that North Carolina’s law does not prevail in court. It is important that the instigators of social change be confronted with the customs and laws of the various locales they are dealing with.
In Alabama, the courts have long held that the citizens of this state have a right to privacy and a right to feel secure; and that these rights extend not just to the physical, but also to the mental and emotional wellbeing of the individual. The right to privacy of an individual in a place in which they would ordinarily and reasonably expect to be secluded, even where that secluded place is public in nature, has been upheld by the state and federal courts in Alabama for years. By implication this principle would have to extend to restroom, bathroom and changing facilities.
The argument that a self-professed “gender identity” affords access to a facility over the deep concerns of other members of the public is a violation of that right to privacy. Even the liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has stated that the notion that a ban on sex discrimination requires unisex restrooms in public places is “emphatically not so.” <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/05/09/prominent-feminist-bans-on-sex-discrimination-emphatically-do-not-require-unisex-restrooms/>
So let’s be clear. If the priests of political correctness are going to call for the sacrifice of the privacy and security of the vast majority of the citizenry then there is going to be a fight. If my bill passes, which I believe that it will, the law of this state will reaffirm that privacy and security are inherently and naturally given to the public in this state.
If North Carolina’s law is struck down then my legislation will become a backstop to say that if any person or entity provides public restrooms, bathrooms, or changing facilities then they will do so in one of three ways: a single user facility; facilities separated by the physical gender of the users; or, if facilities are provided in a unisex/transgender manner, an attendant for each facility must be onsite to address any concerns or questions of the general public. Failure to do so would result in civil penalties and provide a private right of action in court for those individuals who have been harmed or aggrieved.
There will be push back on this. Liberals do not agree with anyone having a say in their debate. But my legislation is designed to provide security to the public at large, and this bill could just as easily protect a transgender user of a public facility from being harmed as well. The bottom line is that we have a right to privacy in place now; and liberals should not for a second think that Alabamians will simply stand by and allow the exceptions to throw out the rule.
24 Comments
Tyler Skewes
If you don’t feel safe in their PUBLIC restrooms, don’t use them. It is a privilege to use a public restroom, not a right.
Susan Manning Harper
I couldn’t get past the erroneous part about Target supposedly making all of their bathrooms unisex. That is just not factually correct. Just so pathetic that this “representative” is so ignorant of the facts. Besides, who ever felt like a public bathroom was their “safe space”? Go in, do your business, have some common sense and get out.
Susan Manning Harper
I couldn’t get past the erroneous part about Target supposedly making all of their bathrooms unisex. That is just not factually correct. Just so pathetic that this “representative” is so ignorant of the facts. Besides, who ever felt like a public bathroom was their “safe space”? Go in, do your business, have some common sense and get out.
Ron Hyche
Why not just build these people a separate bathroom facility?
Nick Smith
Because money, I don’t think Trussville has enough money to build new bathrooms around town because people fear change.
William Kennedy
How is having me be ready to present my birth certificate at the bathroom door a protection of my “privacy”? I thought Republicans wanted less government in our lives, not more.
Norma Basner
Build bathrooms for the people that are confused about their gender!
Debbie Thompson Mullins
I’ll just wait til I get home
Brandon J McArthur
Michael Gray
John Quixote Massey
The equipment that my fellow restroom user has determines whether that person also using a public restroom is violating my privacy…
Cecil Tidmore
Islam was spawn by Satan — Allah is SATAN. — Obama is Satans’ Son.
Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Qur’an 3:54—And they (the unbelievers) planned to deceive, and Allah planned to deceive (the unbelievers), and Allah is the best of deceivers.
Richard Norton
This is nothing new..Where do people THINK they have been going to the bathroom all this time? Yes, right there with you and me. And you did not know did you. THATS THE POINT…The distortion of Targets policy by the writer is way over the top. Worry about important stuff.
Terrell Earnest
Having perverts and pedophiles in the women’s restroom is important stuff!
John Quixote Massey
Great, so I assume you advocate for separate facilities for priests?
Richard Norton
Terrell..lets see if we can find the forest and stop looking at the trees ok. I know that you did not mean by your comment that “perverts and pedophiles” should be going to the MENS room either..so we’ll let that one go…I do not know what kind of problems you folks in OK. Are having..but I have not heard of a single instance here of a transgender person molesting a little boy or a little girl in a public restroom..In Alabama we seem to have more of a problem with “straight” teachers taking advantage of students..and I have a million friends who are teachers and I love them every one..but you know what they say about “bad apples”. Transgender people have been using public restrooms since before you and I were born. We did not pay much attention to it though until the news media a few wing nuts wanting to create a “wedge issue” decided to make a mountain out of a molehill. Surely you do not suggest that ANY AND ALL people who are transgender are “perverts and pedophiles” do you. That would be painting with a really broad brush…I have a casual friend who was a “girl” when I met her some years ago. She transitioned a couple of years ago and is now a “he”. If I posted his photo here you would be hard pressed to convince anyone he should be going to the ladies room, even though that is how he was born. Definitely a muscular man. Btw how do you enforce laws mandating that transgender people go to the bathroom of the sex on their birth certificate. Do you really think we need people outside of public restrooms checking birth records and “privates”? Really? Again worry about important stuff.
Lamar Adkins
How many transsexuals were going in and out of bathroom has no one even knew it before this controversy came up so far so few that the police can’t even find records of anybody being arrested before the controversy.
Maria Lucrecia Greguol
Glad to think most of my neighbors think this way. If a person is a transgender woman and walks into the womens bathroom, she is going to look like a woman. She is not going to spend thousands to look like a woman and then dress like a man.
Maria Lucrecia Greguol
Ment to say glad to see
Terrell Earnest
Richard, you are missing the point. What would keep a pervert or pedophile from entering a ladies restroom and doing their dastardly deeds. Why let the fox in the hen house?
Richard Norton
Terrell..exactly WHAT should we do about this? You seem to think it is happening all the time? If so how do we stop it? My gun owning friends tell me that a criminal will not obey the law. So should people be examined by some sort of bathroom police before entering a public restroom. Seriously what solution do you offer?
Amanda Baker Flynn
When did God become wrong??
Chris Berry
“jeopardize right to privacy” oh please come on now. Transgender people have been using bathrooms with us forever!!!
Khalia Kennedy
All of your homes have gender neutral bathrooms….