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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   34909 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023

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For example, the OG bathroom bill from North Carolina in 2016 set the inquiry as "The physical condition of being male or female, which is stated on a person's birth certificate."

I don't think this is quite "nobody", because North Carolina law does appear to allow for the sex on a birth certificate to be changed if:

A written request from an individual is received by the State Registrar to

change the sex on that individual's birth record because of sex reassignment

surgery, if the request is accompanied by a notarized statement from the

physician who performed the sex reassignment surgery or from a physician

licensed to practice medicine who has examined the individual and can certify

that the person has undergone sex reassignment surgery

ref. https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/PDF/BySection/Chapter_130a/GS_130a-118.pdf

So this sounds more like an example of bathroom use being set to "strict evaluation" rather than self-identification.

The libertarian solution of simply making gender markings in government facilities advisory (and informative of if you're likely to find standing urinals) is I think obviously correct here, and people sometimes dressing in ways that make other people a little uncomfortable is an extremely minor cost to bear, versus establishing a regime of birth certificate checking to be allowed to go to the bathroom in a school or courthouse.

Yes I understand nobody is actually checking birth certificates, but that just indicates the dumbness of this law.

I'm pretty sure it indicates the dumbness of the false choice you set up. "people sometimes dressing in ways that make other people a little uncomfortable" is an extremely minor cost to bear vs establishing a regime of birth certificate checking, true - but not versus nothing even remotely similar to that happening, which is what we have seen in reality.

The libertarian solution of simply making gender markings in government facilities advisory

The libertarian position on trans people, that one has no legal right to force others to go along with your claims of your identity, isn't something I have seen trans activists champion. Thus this appeal to less government intrusion rings hollow.

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