Arizona: The land of beautiful topography, rich Native American history, presidential also-rans and ridiculous forms of minority oppression.
Say what?
If you thought the Hispanic population had it rough in Arizona, just wait for the proposal for a bill awaiting approval in the Arizona House that requires people to only use the public restrooms, locker rooms and dressing rooms designated for the gender that appears on their birth certificate, a law largely targeting the transgender population.
No, this is not a joke. Just a few years ago, Arizona Sen. Russell Pearce spearheaded a bill that required illegal aliens to carry their “papers” with them at all times and were subject to be checked if they “looked suspicious enough.”
Suspicious in this case is an extremely politically correct method basically used to describe anyone the police may or may not mistake for George Lopez.
And here the Grand Canyon State is years later, powering through its attempts at perpetuating intolerance better than Mel Gibson on an answering machine.
Yet another old, fat guy is figuring out a way to cleanse the state of Arizona and make way for nice, straight white folk like Jared Lee Loughner, the model of these lawmakers’ ideal Arizona citizen who opened fire on innocent civilians and politicians in 2011.
How original.
If a bill proposal is approved and then eventually passed, transgender people will be required to use the public facilities of a gender they no longer identify with, or be otherwise faced with — yes, you guessed it — a six-month jail sentence.
It will literally be illegal to use the restroom for the gender you weren’t born as, an offense serious enough to warrant extra space to be made in crowded jails.
Can you imagine the new seasons of all the terrible prison reality shows where the prisoners give speeches about how they got there?
“The lady’s restroom line was so long and the men’s was so short, and I just couldn’t wait any longer…”
I’m an Ohioan. I know that my state hasn’t exactly moved mountains in the whole “acceptance of people different from us” department, but I hope I speak for many by saying how ridiculously appalling this is.
If you’re an optimist, you could say this will, let’s see, create jobs? The Arizona Potty Police: helping keep the community happy and bigoted since 2013.
Jackie Runion is a junior studying journalism at Ohio University and a columnist for The Post. Should Arizona’s new bill be passed? Email Jackie at jr178409@ohiou.edu.
