Loading...
9-8-14 Handout- Philip Wenhoff Proposed Revisions to 95-14-108 1. The law provokes innocent, unintended law violations. Problem. The law, by design, unjustly predisposes the owner or manager to unintended law violations which are innocent, yet punishable nevertheless. Details. The law fails to require pre-employment (or pre-event) disclosure of sexual identity / orientation status. As a result, the owner or manager will not know in advance who is protected (and what behavior is to be protected). Remedy. Revise the law, by adding the following language: The owner, manager or landlord shall be held harmless, when members of the Protected Class fail to disclose in writing their status in advance of hiring, contract or facility use. 2. The law protects behavior, behavior which is unspecified and unlimited. Problem. For the first time, human behavior is protected by statute — undefined behavior which is NOT specified by law and which is NOT disclosed in advance of the event. The Protected Class receives immunity for its unlimited "gender-related . . . behavior". Heterosexuals do NOT enjoy similar protections. Details. The Protected Class can undertake, without consequence, ANY action which it claims is "gender-related . . . behavior". (And, litigious attorneys and activists will soon devise ways to broaden the law's application.) Further, those penalized by the law cannot know in advance what (or whose) actions must be protected, because the permissible "behavior" may be "different from that traditionally associated with the individual's assigned sex at birth". And, the owner or manager is unjustly the victim of punishable law violations which are not intended (a) since the Protected person does not reveal at the onset either his Protected status or his intended future "behavior", and (b) because the "gender- related" characteristics of future "behavior" are alterable day-to- day solely at the discretion of the Protected person. Remedy. Remove the phrase "gender expression"from the bill, or have the bill state explicitly that "behavior" is NOT protected. Gender expression shall mean an individual's gender-related appearance and behavior, whether or not that gender expression is or is perceived to be different from that traditionally associated with the individual's assigned sex at birth.