Editorial: Senate bills ID wrong victims

Senate bills 6548 and 6443 identify as good legislation. They are not.

The first adds a provision to Washington anti-discrimination laws that would allow private facilities to segregate restrooms based on genitalia. The second would require the state Human Rights Commission to repeal a portion of rules adopted in November that allow transgender individuals – those whose sexual identity does not match their genitalia – to use the restroom facilities that correspond to their adopted identity.

Publication of the rules, which did not get the public vetting they should have during drafting, attracted mostly unhappy crowds to legislative committees hearing testimony on the two bills. The overwhelming concern: Sexual predators would adopt whatever identity would gain them access to bathrooms where they might find victims.

But they can do that now. Simply putting on a dress does not allow a man to assert he identifies as a woman. The dress is not an identity, it’s a disguise.

Sexual predation is an ugly crime, but blaming the transgendered population – one-half of whom may be victims of sexual violence themselves – is unfair, and an untruth.

The commission rules, read in their entirety, are intended to protect transgender individuals from discrimination in public and the workplace. SB 6443, which repeals only the section governing gender-segregated facilities, ignores that context.

Bill supporters also ignore experience in the 17 other states and Washington, D.C., where transgender restroom use has already been deregulated. Law enforcement officials say restroom assaults have not increased as a result of the change in law.

There are businesses – gyms and spas, for example – where privacy should and can be protected. And accommodations have been made by Washington schools, which for several years have made allowances for transgender students, with little notice.

Several districts, Spokane Public Schools among them, in November adopted a model transgender policy developed by the Washington State School Administrators. The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction has provided guidance for several years, as well.

The policy – available on the SPS website – balances the rights of transgender students and other students who might be uncomfortable sharing a restroom or locker room with them. If the issue is restrooms, the transgender student or student who prefers privacy can use facilities in the health office or staff restroom.

Locker room accommodations are made on a case-by-case basis, by setting aside a block of time or area. Whatever adjustment is made must protect the student’s gender identity.

There has been one complaint about transgender restroom use, Spokane Public Schools says. That student was allowed to use the staff restroom.

The goal, say district officials, is a welcome and safe learning environment for all students.

The Senate bills achieve this for nobody. In fact, they invite a backlash against a minority that already gets more than its share of harassment, and worse.