Legislators in Mississippi have introduced a number of expenses that aim to limit how trans people can legally discover, where they can use the restroom, how they can change their clothing for sporting events, and whether they are allowed to space with particular people at colleges.
House Bill 585, one of those bills, would pass a law that would allow people of binary gender to coerce trans people into no staying with them in prisons or university dormitories regardless of how they identify or whether they have received sex-affirming treatments like sex change.
Rep. Gene Newman, R-Pearl, who introduced HB 585 on March 7 said,” A woman may not have the ignominy of having a man housed with her or be allowed to be put in with them.” Students have complained to us that they are being forced to live with a guy because the guy is a trans woman.
Senate Bill 2753, also known as the Safer Act, and House Bill 1607, dubbed the Mississippi Women’s Bill of Rights, both proposed legal gender laws that do legitimately connect male and female trans identities, and ostensibly remove the right to recognize trans identity in Mississippi. Additionally, SB 2753 may forbid transgender people from using restricted rooms and other gender-specific settings that correspond to their sexual orientation.
The second chamber saw a significant majority of passage for all three payments.
A transgender person is someone who has a gender identity that is not commonly linked to the sex they were born to. According to Wise Voter, a data and statistics site, it has reported that about 0.45 % of the country’s 2.95 million people identify as transgender, or about 13, 000 individuals. Some trans people do n’t reveal their chosen identity because of potential discrimination, which could explain why this number may be skewed.
Although the University of Mississippi’s cover department website claims that UM does not base cover projects on factors like race, sexual orientation, or gender identity, the University of Mississippi Public Relations Department did not respond to various requests for an appointment to discuss the school’s cover policies.
In the same way, Mississippi State University does not strictly enforce written laws requiring transgender people to be residing in homes according to the gender of their birth.
Five House Democrats, including Bryant Clark of Lexington, Daryl Porter of Summit, and Jackson Reps. Zakiya Summers and Chris Bell, all questioned what the purpose was in giving trans people the right to identify with their chosen gender. HB 1607 was the only proposed law to face significant vocal opposition.
” Why are you doing this bill”? Clark asked. We are aware that there is more than just male and female in this state and throughout the nation, not just what you were born with.
Rep. Joey Hood, R-Ackerman, who gave the bill to House members, only responded by saying that the bill’s original intent was to only establish that both genders would be legally recognized at birth and that gender could only be demonstrated on birth certificates.
Hood said,” What we are saying with this is that what you are born with is what you are.”
Democrats in the House of Representatives are n’t the only ones opposing the bills, however.
Leia Davis, a senior journalism student at the University of Mississippi and a trans woman, claimed that while she initially lived in a college dorm, the bills that seek to restrict her rights or those that would put her in a prison with men would not only fail to recognize who she is, but that they also would put her in harm’s way.
Because I am no longer a man,” It would absolutely be a threat to my safety,” Davis said. Being housed with men would put me at risk for sexual assault, or other forms of assault because I am a woman. So ostensibly, the bill is meant to protect cisgendered women, but inevitably, it will put transgender women in harm and transgender men as well.”
However, Republican lawmakers are n’t just trying to stop trans people from using those spaces with cis-gendered people. SB 2753 would go one step further by mentioning that if these individuals were found to be breaking the new law, they could face legal action or be tried for it by those who believe they were being harmed while sharing that space. That bill passed the Senate, 40- 12.
Reeves blocks transgender students in schoolsThe governor of Mississippi signs a bill limiting transgender athletes.
More on Reeves ‘ opinions on trans lawsThe Mississippi Senate passes a cap on transgender health care
” This is meant to protect the privacy of males and females,” SB 2753 sponsor and Finance Committee Chair Sen. Josh Harkins, R- Flowood, said.
HB 1607, which passed the House 82- 30, would not allow for any form of criminal prosecution or stricter restrictions on trans people using gender-assigned areas in public spaces.
The state’s only LGBTQ and feminist bookstore, Violet Valley Bookstore, is owned by the state’s only LGBTQ and feminism-focused owner, Jaime Harker, director of the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies at the University of Mississippi. Harker, who is an authorized representative of Ole Miss, did not speak to the Clarion Ledger.
” This targeting of trans people makes an already vulnerable population less safe, and it does n’t make women safer,” Harker said. The danger in such laws is that it could increase bullying and hate crimes in the larger community.
These bills will now be referred to as the advancing chamber, where lawmakers will have until midnight on April 2 to decide whether to submit them to Republican Tate Reeves for final consideration. Reeves has previously signed legislation to bar minors from receiving gender-changing treatment and from participating in opposing sex sports.
For the Clarion Ledger, Grant McLaughlin covers state government. He can be reached at [email protected] or 972- 571- 2335.
