From The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/amid-national-outcry-arizona-lawmakers-consider-softened-anti-transgender-bathroom-bill/2013/03/27/1931ea5c-973e-11e2-b5b4-b63027b499de_story.html
By Associated Press
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
PHOENIX — Faced with an outcry from advocacy groups, an Arizona lawmaker has changed his proposed legislation that would have made it a crime for a transgendered person to use a bathroom other than his or her birth sex.
The new bill by state Rep. John Kavanagh ditches that effort and instead seeks to shield businesses from civil or criminal liability if they ban people from restrooms that don’t match their birth sex. The House committee Kavanagh chairs voted to advance the so-called “bathroom bill” late Wednesday on a 7-4 party-line vote as a crowd broke out in chants of “shame, shame, shame.”
The hearing room was packed with people from the LGBT community who opposed the bill and complained that even the revised version was based on fear.
Patty Medway, a transgendered woman who was born a man, said she’s been using female bathrooms for years without a problem. She called on Kavanagh to back away from his effort.
“I’ve been using washrooms for 15 years and I don’t want to be discriminated against, and I’m scared to go to a male washroom,” she said.
The conservative Republican said he listened to the criticism of what one local television station dubbed the “Show Me Your Papers Before You Go Potty” bill.
Continue reading at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/amid-national-outcry-arizona-lawmakers-consider-softened-anti-transgender-bathroom-bill/2013/03/27/1931ea5c-973e-11e2-b5b4-b63027b499de_story.html
See Also: Think Progress: Arizona Lawmaker Now Wants To Enshrine Transgender Discrimination Into Law
