Olivia Hill told The Daily Beast many council members have told her they would look the other way on the restroom issue but knows under state law she risks being thrown in jail.
The first trans person to be elected to office in Tennessee is being treated as a second-class citizen and may be forced to use the male bathroom at work despite identifying as female.
The law seems designed to be slippery, so that it can be nefariously enforced depending on any given interpretation. Many trans individuals in the state have proudly changed their government documents to reflect their gender identity. The law does not say that trans Tennesseans must change their driver’s licenses, or any other legal documents, back to their assigned gender at birth—but it creates a gray area that leaves sinister wiggle room for discrimination.
State Senator Jeff Yarbro, however, has been outspoken in defiance of the discriminatory laws, saying “I don’t know why on earth we would take the risk of losing $2 billion of annual federal funding in order to provide a definition that nobody really thinks needs fixing.” Hill worries about using the women’s room in council buildings while she’s simply trying to do the job that she was elected to do. Within council chambers there are single occupancy restrooms, but just outside in the hall in the state building where they are located, are gendered restrooms.
“This is their latest cruel attempt to stigmatize, marginalize and erase the LGBTQ+ community, particularly transgender Tennesseans. Let’s be clear: the goal of this bill is to exclude the LGBTQ+ community from nondiscrimination protections in the state of Tennessee and to perpetuate a false narrative of who transgender people are,” she said.it was unclear what effect that law would have. “I know this is going to have a real implication.
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