I think there’s value to being specific about the rights of trans people because they are in an especially vulnerable position and are actively being denied basic rights. Yes we need rights for all, but to say “Why should trans people get special treatment with a bill like this?” at this moment has a whiff of the “all lives matter” about it.
Black Lives Matter is a great slogan for social justice. The Black Bill of Rights is a terrible thing for a government whose purpose isn’t racial apartheid. Either we are all equal under the law or we aren’t.
We can’t rely on generic civil rights laws. We already tried that with the Equal Protection Clause, which provides a blanket ban on all forms of government discrimination. We already tried what you propose. In practice, when you want to protect civil rights, you have to ban specific categories of discrimination. Generic bans are toothless.
Laws are toothless if society doesn’t care about them being enforced, and if politicians benefit from not enforcing them. Do you actually think that we’d be in a better situation if the Equal Protection Clause had an addendum that said “especially black people?”
I think there’s value to being specific about the rights of trans people because they are in an especially vulnerable position and are actively being denied basic rights. Yes we need rights for all, but to say “Why should trans people get special treatment with a bill like this?” at this moment has a whiff of the “all lives matter” about it.
Black Lives Matter is a great slogan for social justice. The Black Bill of Rights is a terrible thing for a government whose purpose isn’t racial apartheid. Either we are all equal under the law or we aren’t.
We can’t rely on generic civil rights laws. We already tried that with the Equal Protection Clause, which provides a blanket ban on all forms of government discrimination. We already tried what you propose. In practice, when you want to protect civil rights, you have to ban specific categories of discrimination. Generic bans are toothless.
Laws are toothless if society doesn’t care about them being enforced, and if politicians benefit from not enforcing them. Do you actually think that we’d be in a better situation if the Equal Protection Clause had an addendum that said “especially black people?”