Defend My Privacy

Pennsylvania’s proposed Bathroom Bills - HB 1410 & SB 613 – are the top non-budget priority for Governor Wolf, which would force all facilities open to the public to allow persons, regardless of biological sex, access to all bathrooms, showers, and changing areas.

All public schools and fitness clubs would be forced to allow boys into the girl’s locker room if they claim to be a girl. HB 1410 and SB 613 would overrule current PA law that requires all elementary, secondary and special education schools to have separate restrooms for boys and girls.

$75,000

Under state law in Maine, a school was fined this amount for simply maintaining separate restrooms for boys and girls, and providing a reasonable accommodation of allowing a biologically-male student who identifies as a girl to use either the boys or staff restroom. Maine Supreme Court ordered the school to permit any biologically-male students that identify themselves as a girl to use both the boys and girls restrooms, showers and locker rooms.

3,261

Number of public schools in Pennsylvania. All would be impacted by this proposed bathroom bill.

All public accommodations would be forced to be accessible to all regardless of biological sex, including all public restrooms, restrooms at your workplace, school locker rooms, dressing rooms, showers, homeless shelters, health clubs or overnight hotels on school-sponsored trips.

Wolf’s #1 Priority

The very first non-budget-related priority Governor Wolf stated in his budget address was passing the bathroom bill.

Biological sex is the only valid reason to have separate showers and restrooms in the first place.  Maintaining separate restrooms on any other basis than biological sex is arbitrary and irrational.

No one is born with a gender. Everyone is born with a biological sex. Gender (an awareness and sense of oneself as a male or female) is a sociological and psychological concept; not an objective biological one.

– American College of Pediatricians

Governor Wolf has singled out the Bathroom Bill as a top priority. Out-of-state interest groups intent on banning sex specific restrooms are pushing Governor Wolf’s agenda. 24 Senators co-sponsored this legislation, SB 613. Some may not understand the outlandish implications of this bill. Give them a call and help shrink this list!

The following occurred in cities and states that have passed into law special status for “gender identity” in the area of public accommodations – which is exactly what Pennsylvania’s proposed Bathroom Bills would do:

Seattle, Washington | Man undresses in women’s public pool locker room while young girls were changing for swim practice. When the man was told to leave, he replied, “The law changed and I have a right to be here.”

Boston, Massachusetts | Man awarded $20,000 in taxpayer money after suing the city for his arrest after he refused to leave the bathroom in a women’s shelter.

Maine | Under state law in Maine, a school was fined $75,000 by order of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court for providing the reasonable accommodation of the boys or staff restroom to a biologically-male student who identifies as a girl.

Pennsylvania’s Bathroom Bills define “gender identity or expression” as the “gender-related identity, appearance, mannerisms, expression or other gender-related characteristics of an individual regardless of the individual’s designated sex at birth.”

Illinois | A high school that denied a biologically-male student the use of the girls restroom was told by an Obama administrative agency they were discriminating, and they decided to give in instead of asking a federal court to review, even though every federal court that has reviewed these bathroom cases have found that schools can legally continue to have biologically-distinct bathrooms under federal law. This is why, in order to continue those federal protections, Pennsylvania must not pass the proposed Bathroom Bills (HB 1410 and SB 613).

“[W]e are supposed to accept this and feel like nothing really is happening, but the fact of the matter is that this did get pretty big and now we have someone with male genitals in our girls’ locker room when we are changing.” –16-year-old high school sophomore

Increased Risk of Sexual Assault

One in four girls and one in seven boys will be sexually assaulted before the age of 18 (U.S. Department of Justice).

With the majority of convicted sex offenders living in our communities and nearly 99% of reported sexual assailants being men, opening public accommodations designated for women to biological-males puts adult women and girls at risk.

In Washington State, for example, the YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties changed its policy to allow men to use women’s locker rooms. “We’re following state law,” says Bob Ecklund, their chief executive.

Kaeley Triller Haver, a survivor of sexual assault, quit her job as communications director for this YMCA when asked to create talking points about the new policy. “There are countless deviant men in this world who will pretend to be transgender as a means of gaining access to the people they want to exploit, namely women and children. It already happens.”

• Richard Rodriguez | Dressed as a woman and arrested for spying into a mall bathroom stall.
• Paul Witherspoon | A registered sex offender, while still on parole for sexually assaulting a teenage girl, was spotted wearing women’s clothing going into the women’s bathroom in Dallas.
• Christopher Todd Gard | Assaulted an 8 year old girl inside a bathroom at a convenience store. After the girl came in, he locked the door and, while wearing women’s underwear, began to choke her.
• Christopher Hambrook | Identified himself as transgender to access women’s shelters where he sexually assaulted two women.
• Washington State | A 45-year-old male exposed his genitalia on several occasions to young girls, some as young as 6 years old, in the locker room of Evergreen State College.
  

  They permit him to use the women’s facilities, as a college spokesman said: “The College cannot discriminate on the basis of gender identity. Gender identity is one of the protected things in discrimination law in this state.”

• Thomas Lee Benson | A convicted sex offender for having sexual contact with a minor, he now identifies as a woman and uses the women’s locker room at a swimming pool while young girls are changing. According to the County Sheriff’s office, Benson is known to dress as a female to gain access to undressed minor females and to use money, candy and threats to gain access to his victims.

In June 2014, Pennsylvania passed Erin’s Law, which requires age-appropriate sexual abuse and assault awareness and prevention education to public school students. If Pennsylvania lawmakers are concerned about the risks of sexual abuse towards children, they should be adamantly opposed to the proposed bathroom bills—HB 1410 and SB 613.

Step 1 | Sign and Share the Petition.

Step 2 | Call or visit your State Senator and State Representative.

Step 3 | Consider Donating to the Defend My Privacy Coalition.