Sara Jacobs: “Trans people, including trans servicemembers, deserve the basic human dignity and common decency of safely using the…”

“Trans people, including trans servicemembers, deserve the basic human dignity and common decency of safely using the restroom. Besides that, let's take the gentlewoman's point at face value. She wants to protect women. Great. So do I. Bathroom bans do not protect women. The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law even did a study on it, and there is zero evidence that allowing trans people to use the correct bathroom increases the risk to others. In fact, it is actually opposite. We have seen that cis women are harassed when people try to enforce or decree bathroom bans. Earlier this year at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Minnesota, a server followed a teenage girl into the restroom and demanded she prove she was a girl. When the server didn't believe her, she unzipped her hoodie to show she had breasts. That is the actual reality of bathroom bans and even the idea of bathroom bans: harassment, discrimination, and body exams. We don't need servicemembers acting like vigilantes to enforce this policy either by surveillance, profiling, or physical inspections. Our servicewomen go through enough. We shouldn't be inviting even more harassment. We don't need this amendment opening up the Pentagon and the entire U.S. Government to a massive lawsuit. This isn't good policy. This doesn't protect women. This is based on misinformation, and I urge my colleagues to vote 'no.'”