California: Assembly-approved trans bills head to state Senate

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI — Two bills offering protections to transgender people were given the thumbs-up in the California Assembly yesterday,May 9, and will now pass to the state Senate for deliberations, Pink News reports.

According to the report, one bill would allow transgender students to use bathrooms and play on sports teams that align with their gender identity, while the second measure would create provisions for transgender people to change their birth certificates without undergoing long legal procedures.

Democrat Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who spearheaded the bill regarding trans students, said it would “clarify and enforce the state’s laws prohibiting discrimination against people because of gender identity,” Pink News says.

Both bills were opposed by Republicans, with none of the party’s members voting for the Ammiano measure, the report notes.

Natasha Barsotti is originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She had high aspirations of representing her country in Olympic Games sprint events, but after a while the firing of the starting gun proved too much for her nerves. So she went off to university instead. Her first professional love has always been journalism. After pursuing a Master of Journalism at UBC , she began freelancing at Xtra West — now Xtra Vancouver — in 2006, becoming a full-time reporter there in 2008.

Keep Reading

Trans issues didn’t doom the Democrats

OPINION: The Republicans won ending on a giant anti-trans note, but Democrats ultimately failed to communicate on class

Xtra Explains: Trans girls and sports

Debunking some of the biggest myths around trans girls and fairness in sports

How ‘mature minor’ laws let trans kids make their own decisions

Canadian law lets some youth make medical or legal decisions for themselves, but how does it work?

To combat transphobia, we need to engage with the people who spread it

OPINION: opening up a dialogue with those we disagree with is key if we want to achieve widespread social change