Elderly residents of care homes in California could soon have to share rooms with members of the opposite sex after a pro-LGBT Bill was recently proposed.
The controversial SB 219 Bill would allow a transsexual person to occupy a room and use washing facilities based on the gender of their choosing.
SB 219 was introduced in the California State Senate in February, and it was amended by a pro-LGBT senator last week.
Vulnerable
The law would prevent any care home residents or staff from objecting, and there are no exemptions on religious grounds, even for specifically Christian care homes.
This means that vulnerable women could be forced to share a bedroom with a biological male – and vice versa – and would have no right to request that the person is removed.
Privacy advocate Karen England slammed the Bill, saying: “This legislation strips privacy rights from vulnerable, elderly individuals while giving new rights to transgender individuals.”
Double standard
She also criticised the double standard, as non-transgender people are not given the right to object, while transgender people can choose to share a room with either men or women.
England also highlighted California’s history of pro-LGBT legislation, as it was the first state to introduce laws allowing transsexual pupils to use the toilet and changing facilities of their choice in schools.
The Bill would also make it illegal to refer to a transsexual resident by anything other than their preferred name and pronoun.
‘Unconsionable’
Brad Dacus, President of the Pacific Justice Institute – a pro-religious liberty organisation – criticised the Bill’s “radical gender theory”.
He said: “All of us should be alarmed by the attempt to now criminalize the use of legal names and grammatically correct pronouns in nursing homes”.
He added that the Bill as a whole was “not only unconstitutional but unconscionable”.