In what is now becoming a troubling trend, Virginia legislator Robert G. Marshall has filed a bill to intended to restrict transgender people’s use of bathrooms in schools, highway rest stops and government buildings.
The Washington Post reports that while the legislation in question is very similar to HB2, the North Carolina bill introduced last year, it differs in that it would require school principals to “to notify all parents if a student at their children’s school asks to be treated as a member of the opposite sex — whether by being allowed to use a different bathroom or being addressed by a different name or pronoun.”
The Physical Privacy Act addresses an entirely false notion of “student safety,” echoing the concerns that sparked HB2, namely that “men and boys will pretend to be transgender to infiltrate bathrooms and locker rooms used by women and girls.” While it’s clear to anyone with an ounce of reason that this is a patently ridiculous conceit, Marshall said “Mere separation of the sexes should not be considered discrimination.”
Marshall is also responsible for introducing a bill that would declare pornography a public hazard, so clearly he’s a lunatic intent on using his position of power to essentially troll a governing body to push his own horrifying agenda. He’s also the same legislator that once described incest as “sometimes voluntary” and claimed that disabled children are “God’s vengeance” on women who have abortions, the fact that he’d introduce this bill is no surprise.
This bill coincides with the case of Gavin Grimm, a transgender student in Gloucester, VA., whose battle to use the restroom of his choosing at his high school will be heard by the Supreme Court. His school board’s refusal to let him do so was ruled unlawful under Title IX, but who knows what will happen under a Trump presidency.
Notifying every single parent of a school that a child that is allowed to use a different bathroom or a different pronoun is an egregious violation of their privacy. Despite the bill’s introduction, it’s highly unlikely that it will pass and will certainly be vetoed by Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe should it hit his desk.