House Bill 165, signed into law over 2 months ago, implies that allowing trans women to use women’s bathrooms is violence against cis women and declares that “bathrooms don’t have sex, but people do.”
I live here and I didn't know this happened. Hate the media and our governor so fucking bad. Never gonna gain independence when bootlickers and morons govern us.
That's what makes me so angry! I only found out about this because I found the Puerto Rico bill tracking site and looked through it for research purposes. I saw this had passed and absolutely could not believe my eyes that this had flown completely under the radar.
“We firmly believe that human dignity is unalienable and that every person has a right to use a public restroom in a clean, safe, and accessible manner" ...expect those who are transgender.
I had thought about a trip there to avoid hassles with Customs. Not going to go there now. Nobody deserves to be harassed, marginalized or denied basic rights and dignity because some bigots have their knickers in a twist about a made up problem made up to stoke genuine hate to make some members of a disadvantaged population happy to have someone they can look down on and demonize.
Thanks for keeping us informed, Aleksandra! PR is a place I could end up traveling someday, because part of our family is from there. Do you know if this includes airports? I suppose I could still go, as long as I could hold my bladder long enough to get from the plane to the hotel and vice versa. Then again, I'm not sure I'm itching to go to a place where I'm not welcome. And because it's a US territory, I still have to deal with the fact that the federal government wants me eradicated.
It includes government-owned corporations so yes, it includes airports unfortunately. If you have an updated ID it shouldn't be an issue though.
And really, I'm sorry about not being able to inform you all sooner! I had no idea this even existed until I found and looked through the PR bill tracking website (which I had been searching for for a while lol). Thankfully though, I'm in a unique position to interpret it among trans policy journalists and researchers as Spanish was actually my first language :)
No apologies necessary, Aleksandra! There's a lot we find out about in hindsight. We (the queer/trans press, particularly you, Erin Reed, and S Baum) are only now starting to get good about gathering and reporting these things. I think y'all do an amazing job and provide an indispensable service to our community, covering critically important news that nobody else cares about.
BTW, it's nice to have your language skills as part of the trans press talent pool!
Thanks, that's so kind of you to say! To be honest, my frustration about this moreso comes from the fact that I've been doing a ton of policy research over the past month, and I've just very recently become the first person to confirm birth certificate policies in all 50 states AND 6 territories and the first person to confirm ID policies in all 50 states. It's more of a "I can't believe I missed this when I've gotten all that," you know?
Don't be hard on yourself! Putting on my statistical hat for a moment: When there are so, so many things out there, and there is a small but finite chance that you will overlook any given thing, eventually you're going to overlook something. Our community has been slammed with SO MUCH CRAP that you're absolutely going to miss some of it. In this case, it happened to be PR restrooms. It's sort of derives from "Murphy's Law" - If something can go wrong, it will (eventually, given enough trials or opportunities). That's why it's good to have more eyes searching for this stuff. I'm glad your eyes are on the job! ;-)
In answer to my own question, the airport in San Juan seems to be owned by the Puerto Rico Ports Authority, which is a government-owned corporation run by the government, so I guess it's included in the bathroom ban as well.
As much as I want to support territories gaining statehood, Puerto Rico can fuck off until they reverse these bans, as well as implement trans friendly policies. The same goes for the other territories.
The other territories haven't really done this: the territory with the next worst policy is Guam with a sports ban, but it was adopted bureaucratically rather than by the legislature. That said, most don't have progressive policies either through; they just don't restrict trans people. Except the US Virgin Islands, which passed broad gender identity (and sexual orientation) discrimination protections in 2023 and are actually cool.
I live here and I didn't know this happened. Hate the media and our governor so fucking bad. Never gonna gain independence when bootlickers and morons govern us.
That's what makes me so angry! I only found out about this because I found the Puerto Rico bill tracking site and looked through it for research purposes. I saw this had passed and absolutely could not believe my eyes that this had flown completely under the radar.
“We firmly believe that human dignity is unalienable and that every person has a right to use a public restroom in a clean, safe, and accessible manner" ...expect those who are transgender.
I had thought about a trip there to avoid hassles with Customs. Not going to go there now. Nobody deserves to be harassed, marginalized or denied basic rights and dignity because some bigots have their knickers in a twist about a made up problem made up to stoke genuine hate to make some members of a disadvantaged population happy to have someone they can look down on and demonize.
It really is a shame how much American colonial influence will shape cultural battles like this in occupied territories.
Our siblings in Puerto Rico deserve to live their lives free from the interference of American culture war mongering.
Thanks for keeping us informed, Aleksandra! PR is a place I could end up traveling someday, because part of our family is from there. Do you know if this includes airports? I suppose I could still go, as long as I could hold my bladder long enough to get from the plane to the hotel and vice versa. Then again, I'm not sure I'm itching to go to a place where I'm not welcome. And because it's a US territory, I still have to deal with the fact that the federal government wants me eradicated.
It includes government-owned corporations so yes, it includes airports unfortunately. If you have an updated ID it shouldn't be an issue though.
And really, I'm sorry about not being able to inform you all sooner! I had no idea this even existed until I found and looked through the PR bill tracking website (which I had been searching for for a while lol). Thankfully though, I'm in a unique position to interpret it among trans policy journalists and researchers as Spanish was actually my first language :)
No apologies necessary, Aleksandra! There's a lot we find out about in hindsight. We (the queer/trans press, particularly you, Erin Reed, and S Baum) are only now starting to get good about gathering and reporting these things. I think y'all do an amazing job and provide an indispensable service to our community, covering critically important news that nobody else cares about.
BTW, it's nice to have your language skills as part of the trans press talent pool!
Thanks, that's so kind of you to say! To be honest, my frustration about this moreso comes from the fact that I've been doing a ton of policy research over the past month, and I've just very recently become the first person to confirm birth certificate policies in all 50 states AND 6 territories and the first person to confirm ID policies in all 50 states. It's more of a "I can't believe I missed this when I've gotten all that," you know?
Don't be hard on yourself! Putting on my statistical hat for a moment: When there are so, so many things out there, and there is a small but finite chance that you will overlook any given thing, eventually you're going to overlook something. Our community has been slammed with SO MUCH CRAP that you're absolutely going to miss some of it. In this case, it happened to be PR restrooms. It's sort of derives from "Murphy's Law" - If something can go wrong, it will (eventually, given enough trials or opportunities). That's why it's good to have more eyes searching for this stuff. I'm glad your eyes are on the job! ;-)
In answer to my own question, the airport in San Juan seems to be owned by the Puerto Rico Ports Authority, which is a government-owned corporation run by the government, so I guess it's included in the bathroom ban as well.
As much as I want to support territories gaining statehood, Puerto Rico can fuck off until they reverse these bans, as well as implement trans friendly policies. The same goes for the other territories.
The other territories haven't really done this: the territory with the next worst policy is Guam with a sports ban, but it was adopted bureaucratically rather than by the legislature. That said, most don't have progressive policies either through; they just don't restrict trans people. Except the US Virgin Islands, which passed broad gender identity (and sexual orientation) discrimination protections in 2023 and are actually cool.
Yes, sorry. In reference to the other territories I was talking about their poor and lackluster policies regarding trans people. And good on USVI!