This month marks the Third Anniversary of the United States Supreme Court decision to overturn Proposition 8 and the federal Defense of Marriage Act. It is also the 47th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots of New York City, which kick-started the LGBT rights movement. So, it is fitting that we celebrate San Francisco’s LGBT Pride Celebration in June.
Although many exciting changes have advanced LGBT rights, the fight for equality continues. These struggles remind us why Pride is so important to foster acceptance and celebration of diversity as a basis for ensuring that everyone’s rights are respected and protected.
Many of the fights raging in other states have been settled in California. In 2013, we created the transgender student bill of rights, which allows students at public schools to fully participate in activities and have access to school restrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity. In 2012, we banned youth “conversion therapy,” a harmful and homophobic practice that punishes young LGBT people by trying to change their sexual orientation.
We have also passed laws that establish LGBT cultural competency in health care and that require death certificates to reflect the deceased’s gender identity.
California continues to lead on equality. I introduced Assembly Bill 1732 this year, which requires all single-occupancy restrooms to be universally accessible and designated as “all gender.” If enacted, it would establish the most progressive restroom access law in the country. The bill passed the State Assembly last month and will receive a hearing in the State Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing later this month.
Restroom access has long been a source of contention for those opposed to transgender rights. Subsequently, the threat that transgender people face when using the restroom is very real. A study from the Williams Institute at UCLA found that 70 percent of transgender people have been verbally harassed, denied access or physically assaulted in association with the use of gender restricted public restrooms.
As states enact discriminatory restroom access laws targeting transgender Americans, all of us should take heart in the prompt action taken by our leaders to confront and condemn this hate.
Following the enactment of such a law in North Carolina, many prominent businesses have called for a repeal of the law. Others banned travel to the state. The Obama Administration also announced that laws prohibiting sex discrimination in education programs and activities operated by recipients of federal financial assistance apply to discrimination based on a student’s gender identity. It laid out the law quite simply in saying, “…a school must not treat a transgender student differently from the way it treats other students of the same gender identity.”
All of us have a part in the fight for equality. The shrill debate we see today about restrooms, a basic need of life, shows us the need to keep speaking out. In this fight, I am inspired to see how quickly the LGBT community and its allies have taken action. That solidarity is something in which all of us can take pride in as we celebrate Pride Month.
Phil Ting represents the 19th Assembly District, which includes the Westside of San Francisco along with the communities of Broadmoor, Colma, Daly City, and South San Francisco.
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