Like the folks who rose up against Plano's non-discrimination ordinance, Republican Texas Representative Debbie Riddle is quite concerned with which public restroom you choose to use.
Riddle introduced a bill Friday that mandates that anyone over the age of 12 commits a Class A misdemeanor when he or she uses a restroom "designated for use by persons of a gender that is not the same gender as the individual's gender." There is a carve-out for those accompanying kids under 8 years old, but that's it.
Building operators face even stiffer penalties:
"An operator, manager, superintendent, or other person with authority over a building described by Subsection (a) may not allow an individual who is at least seven years of age to repeatedly enter a locker room, shower facility, or toilet facility in the building that is designated for use by persons of a gender that is not the same gender as the individual's gender. A violation of this subsection is a state jail felony."
Riddle's definition of gender relies solely on one's chromosomal makeup. If you've got at least one X and one Y chromosome, you have to use the men's restroom. If you've got at least one X chromosome and no Y chromosomes, you have to use the women's.
Or face the long arm of the law.
Beyond the fact that, as most people who've taken freshman sociology can tell you, gender is a bit slippery and might be a social construct, the mechanisms needed to enforce Riddle's proposed law are mind-boggling.
And of course, a cursory check of the Internet found information about something called 46, XX testicular disorder on a National Institutes of Health website. Apparently, about 1 in 20,000 males have no Y chromosome. So either they'll have to carry around a long doctor's note, learn to hold it in till they get home or have a lawyer on speed dial just in case.
Obviously, there's only one solution to the riddle posed by capricious nature. (Riddle. Hah! See what we did there? ) Mandatory genetic testing for all Texans at age 8 plus some sort of permanent marker -- a tattoo on the inner-forearm perhaps, or this being Texas, maube the application of a good old-fashioned branding-iron.
Sounds easy enough.
(h/t Towle Road)
