Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google Lobby Against Texas 'Bathroom' Bill (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Executives from some of the globe's leading technology firms are demanding that Texas not adopt "discriminatory" bathroom legislation. On the table in Texas is a law similar to one enacted -- and later partially repealed -- in North Carolina. The tech companies have aligned themselves with critics of the bill who believe the legislation is unfair to the transgender community. "As large employers in the state, we are gravely concerned that any such legislation would deeply tarnish Texas' reputation as open and friendly to businesses and families," the companies wrote Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. "Our ability to attract, recruit and retain top talent, encourage new business relocations, expansions and investment, and maintain our economic competitiveness would all be negatively affected." Pending Texas Senate legislation would prohibit transgender people in Texas from using restrooms matching their gender identities. The House on Sunday passed its own bill that would apply the bathroom limitations solely at schools. The tech companies, however, aren't threatening to pull out of Texas, like some did over the same issue in North Carolina. The letter sent to Gov. Abbott was signed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon chief Jeff Wilke, IBM head Ginni Rometty, Microsoft President Brad Smith, and Google's Sundar Pichai. There were 14 companies -- including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Silicon Labs, Celanese Corp., GSD&M, Salesforce, and Gearbox Software -- signing on to the letter. "Discrimination is wrong and it has no place in Texas or anywhere in our country," the companies wrote.
Yes, yes, let's have for-profit corporations serve special interests to undermine the actual public's will.
Seriously. Why is this an issue? The real issues involve transgender people being perceived as duplicitous and being treated as if they're perverted. The whole thing of asking if you'd like your child using the restroom with a transgender person who hasn't had the surgery yet is ridiculous. It portrays transgender people as perverts without regard that someone of the same gender of the child is just as likely to harm the child. It doesn't affect me if a transgender person is in a public restroom with me, rents from me, or is employed by me. Let them be, don't discriminate against them, and focus on the real issues. This might be surprising coming from a conservative like me, but let's worry about the economy and foreign policy, and let transgender people be.
- snruter rotsac
so they have no problem with gays being stoned to death apparently.
You can be hurt or killed in the men's room or thrown in jail if you use the ladies and even be registered as a sex offender in states like Arkansas if caught
http://saveie6.com/
I used to go to a bar where a guy who had both a dick and tits was a customer every so often.
To me the presence of this person was visually revolting. I was not in the least afraid of this person,
however I go to a bar to enjoy myself and the presence of this person impinged on my ability
to enjoy myself. So I quit going to the bar. This was no loss for me, because there are other bars
where such freaks do not show up. Many people don't want to hang out with such weird shit, and if
you doubt this then you need to get some more real-world experience because you are living in a bubble.
Bottom Line Number 1: some ( many ) of us just don't want to be around seriously weird people. And don't even try to tell me a
person who has a dick and tits that were added later is not weird. No power on earth is going to make me decide I am ok with being
proximate to such shit.
Bottom Line Number 2 : The vast majority of people are not transsexuals or similar. Transsexuals etc. are a tiny fraction of
the population. There's no way in the real world that weird people who are a tiny minority of the population are going to have the
ability to compel the majority of the population to accept their weirdness. No law or regulation is going to force people to like stuff they
do not like. And only an idiot or a fool or a liar with a hidden agenda would attempt to claim otherwise.
Bottom Line Number 3 : Do what you like in the privacy of your own home. But when you go into public there are rules and laws
in place which we all have to follow. If you disregard those rules you're going to have a rough life.
Lastly - I am sick and tired of minority groups acting like they are entitled to special treatment. And I guarantee I am FAR from alone
in this sentiment. You want to be weird and flout convention ? Fine. Don't expect any sympathy from me if you find yourself in a bad situation,l
because quite frankly, you put yourself there. If you look weird, or act weird, you're asking for a difficult life. Don't be surprised when it happens.
The Texas legislature says the bathroom bill is about privacy . Aren't Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google in favor of privacy????
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Forced group disrobement is obsolete because nobody can agree on what the groups should be. I have visited and participated in nude beaches, but group showers for men in a local community center frankly feel weird. Why should anyone watch me washing my junk? And for anyone with kids the preferable solution is to give them privacy from others of any gender.
Every once in a while females get raped and otherwise assaulted there. No, not by actual transgender lunatics — by "regular" perverts.
For security and/or police to be able to prevent such assaults, a law explicitly banning men in women's bathrooms may be necessary — without it, such people can not be removed from there preemptively.
Not "their" — the law is about public (and otherwise publicly accessible) bathrooms. You can still pee however you want in yours, even if — thanks to certain Democrats — you aren't free to properly flush afterwards.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
As a Texan, I've been reading about this bill for almost a year now. Here's some context around it:
1) Texas still has some of the most molester-friendly groping laws in the nation (anything short of penetration is a class C misdemeanor, you won't even go to jail for it). This bill does nothing to address it.
2)The driving force behind the bill is revenge on the federal government for dictating that transgender students can use the restroom of their identified gender (a policy that is strongly supported by local school districts). That's why the bill only applies to government buildings (and a subset of those, at that!).
3)The bill's author, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (not the sportscaster) got his start as a bargain-bin Rush Limbaugh. He realizes that the "social conservatives" lost the fight against gays, and he's using this to target a smaller, even more vulnerable minority.
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
As someone who has cleaned public restrooms I can assure you that the mens room is cleaner than the womens room. Females are just nasty.
Sure, men leave pee drops on the floor or seat, but pee is usually sterile. Women leave all manner of fluids, solids, and gooey substances everywhere. And some women do miss the toilet. I presume that's caused by them hovering above the seat because they know how disgusting it is.
Most of these legislators used to beat up geeks in High School. Tech firms lobbying against something is tantamount to support here. Republican attitude will be, "You don't like this, well I'm going to make you eat lots of it!"
This is a typical tactic used by you people.
"Where's the issue? It's NOT Happening!"
Well it's not happening now because there are laws, regulations, conventions, customs, that keep men from using women's facilities. (This is also a deception by you people...it's about ALL women's facilities, not just bathrooms).
If a guy goes into a woman's facility now, they will be chased out, the police might be called, and the guy possibly arrested for disorderly conduct or something.
Wit the laws that the Left is trying to pass, this could not happen. Further, they write the laws so poorly that ANY guy could simply declare he identifies as a woman and walk right in. There is no "Trans Card" or anything else to prevent that. Get that? Any Guy, Any Time, merely needs to declare, and it's an all access pass.
So the bottom line is you would be opening up a very target rich environment for perverts who could enter a women's facility, unquestioned, and if anyone is uncomfortable or even suspicious, they could not do anything absent some evidence like a camera, or inappropriate behavior.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.