It really isn’t just about bathrooms and locker rooms. House Bill 1577, “the Bathroom Bill,” is intended to normalize transgenderism in every corner of our public lives. Advocates for the bill claim that it is necessary to prevent discrimination in “public accommodations,” like restaurants and hospitals. (For a glimpse at the clout this movement has on Beacon Hill, see this article from Friday’s New Boston Post.) Any concern expressed over the fact that public accommodations include intimate settings where people get undressed or shower is dismissed as being “transphobic.” 
The voices behind this renewed push for a Bathroom Bill also fail to mention that the state agency responsible for adjudicating discrimination claims has already forced at least one hospital to settle with a transgendered woman who claimed she was denied service. (The woman was identifying as a man, but then wanted artificial insemination treatment, and the hospital balked at doing this.) This means the tactic of claiming people are being thrown out of hospitals for being transgendered and have no legal recourse is disingenuous at best. According to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), only a small fraction of all discrimination claims involve “gender identity.” However, it’s hard to tell precisely how many, as they are lumped together with “Arrest Record, Genetic Information, Lead Paint, Military Status” and other categories, which together make up just 3% of all discrimination complaints in 2014. To be clear, this bill is not about battling some epidemic of “discrimination.” The facts show none exists.
This bill is about demanding public affirmation and normalization of “gender fluidity.” As Rosaria Butterfield, the ex-lesbian turned pastor’s wife has said of the LGBTQ agenda, “If we cannot receive blessing from God, we demand acceptance from man.” And what will be the consequences of this broader normalization and “acceptance” of transgenderism? A sad but fascinating article from Boston University this week recounts the impact of one college student encountering this ideology of sex and gender as a freshman:
“Some theorist had talked about how everything we think about in society is a social construct,” Ray (a pseudonym) says. “We were talking about that in direct relation to gender, and there was a moment when I felt, in my brain, like something fell apart. I could feel the fabric of my reality crumbling. It was scariest thing I’d ever felt. I was like, ‘Maybe I’m not a female.’ That thought had never crossed my mind before. It was really shocking to me as an 18-year-old. What am I supposed to do with this information?”… So Ray spent much of freshman year grappling with gender identity in “crisis mode,” and on-campus counseling didn’t provide an answer. “People can point you to resources,” Ray says, “but it’s your personal identification that only you can figure out internally.”
These days, Ray identifies as neither male nor female, but somewhere else on the gender spectrum. Like many people in the trans community, Ray rejects the idea of gender as purely binary, and prefers “they” as a singular pronoun, instead of he or she.
If this is the reaction of a college student, imagine the gender malleability of far more impressionable young children, who will be forced to embrace transgenderism in their own elementary school bathrooms and gym locker-rooms if this bill passes.
The public hearing for this bill is Tuesday, October 6th at the State House. Please join us there to stand up for the right to privacy and for common sense, and against this unnecessary, ideologically motivated bill. You can testify for the three minutes allotted to anyone who wishes to speak, or simply stand with us and be counted amongst pro-family supporters, sending a message of presence to the legislature. If you can’t make it, please call and email your representatives to make sure your voice is heard. You can learn more at the nobathroombill.com website.