11 Comments
Nov 21Liked by Claire Potter

Our sweet Nancy is a grifter and a hypocrite. With her proposed rule change, any woman in the Capitol will be forced to prove by ID or physical examination that she is female, before using one of the public restrooms for women. Legally and practically that is the only way such a rule could be enforced. Our Nancy came to fame by being the first female to graduate from The Citadel, a 200-year-old all-male military academy in Charleston. In other words, she built her reputation on invading male spaces. When her initiative comes to debate, it's going to fall apart on the face of its foolishness. And she's not going to get more than a couple of female House members behind her.

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Oops and how could I have forgotten that wretched book and movie, The Help. Outdoor toilets to protect whie women from having to share their toilets and their tushies with their maids.

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Exactly! Thanks so much for this great comment, Barbara.

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When Truman desegregated the armed forces the racist hue and cry was about bathrooms and showers; the same when Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. Oh! These white boys will have to use toilets and showers alongside Black men. Phyllis Shlafley warned about the dangers co-ed toilets if the ERA passed, and then when lgbtq folks were allowed to serve in the military toilet and shower fears re-emerged with an racialized and gendered venom.

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Claire, brilliant writing. Thank you for highlighting the parallels between segregation/racism and transmisia here in the US. It's the same playbook being reused over and over. As a transman, I sincerely wonder if a trip to the Capitol is in order. I wonder what Nancy would say if I walked into the same restroom with her.

This also begs the question of the rule-maker (Johnson), how exactly are we supposed to categorize all of the varied bodies using these spaces into just two distinctions? I'm certain they haven't considered those of us in the trans community who have mysterious, complicated, or modified biology, let alone the folx who pass as cis and may be intersex. And this is how we know it isn't really about bathrooms at all. This is just the first step toward "separate but not equal."

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Thanks so much Robin--appreciate these points.

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Except for sustainer

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It definitely says that if you choose the annual membership you get a book--I just checked.

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The current upgrade indicates your book is not included.

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The book is included in all annual subscriptions--I'll check, but I think it says that!

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In any case, take out an annual subscription and I will send you a book!

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