By Penny Robo
The Trump Administration has gone full bore on anti-LGBT initiatives, and trans people are feeling the bulk of it. Beyond the recent installation of a new version of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” that specifically targets trans members of the military (for literally no reason), a slew of new efforts are also taking shape. A recently unveiled HUD proposal says that state-funded shelters should be permitted to deny entry to trans people. The language is a bit more obtuse, but it’s clear enough, as seen below (emphasis mine):
“This proposed rule provides that grant recipients, subrecipients, owners, operators, managers, and providers (Shelter Providers) under HUD programs which permit single-sex or sex-segregated facilities (such as bathrooms or temporary, emergency shelters and other buildings and facilities with physical limitations or configurations that require and are permitted to have shared sleeping quarters or bathing facilities) may establish a policy, consistent with state and local law, by which such Shelter Provider considers an individual’s sex for the purposes of determining accommodation within such shelters and for purposes of determining sex for admission to any facility or portion thereof. The proposed rule permits Shelter Providers to consider a range of factors in making such determinations, including privacy, safety, practical concerns, religious beliefs, any relevant considerations under civil rights and nondiscrimination authorities , the individual’s sex as reflected in official government documents, as well as the gender which a person identifies with. The proposed rule does not dictate a required basis for making determinations other than that they be consistent with an overall policy.”
The final line is the icing on the cake… Continue reading “Yes, the shirt is real”