Amendment Would Prohibit Transgender People From Using Restrooms in Accordance With Their Gender Identity
U.S Congressman Steve King is working to ban transgender people in U.S. Capitol buildings from using restrooms that correspond with their gender identity. The Republican from Iowa, known for his anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-science, anti-choice positions, proposed a short, 32-word amendment to a spending bill that effectively accomplishes the ban.
The Washington Blade reports Rep. King’s “measure would effectively bar transgender people from using the public restroom consistent with their gender identity in the U.S. Capitol as well as the Library of Congress or the House or Senate office buildings.” King is also proposing to “bar the hiring of undocumented immigrants, empower the Capitol Police to enforce immigration laws and allow the lawful carry of firearms on Capitol Grounds,” according to the Blade’s Chris Johnson.
Saying Rep. King is “targeting transgender Americans,” Human Rights Campaign government affairs director David Stacy told the Blade King’s amendment “would tell every Members’ transgender constituents they aren’t welcome to visit the Capitol, the Library of Congress, or a House or Senate office building.”
Last year, Rep. King, commenting on the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage ruling, claimed it meant that now “you can marry my lawnmower.”
The year before, King claimed that gay people are “condemned to hell” and none in 2000 years have ever made it to heaven.
King is, however probably best known for his 2013 comments that made national news for weeks. He claimed that for every undocumented immigrant in America “who’s a valedictorian, there’s another hundred out there who — they weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’ve been hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”
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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license