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North Carolina Republicans Consider Another Obstacle for Transgender Bathroom Use

Republicans in North Carolina are still considering what to do about their unconstitutional anti-transgender "bathroom bill" HB2 and, apparently, their first big idea is to make matters even worse.

Given their supposed aversion to government databases and catalogs of people you may not suspect Republicans would want to create a new big government database, but that's exactly what they're proposing.

Republicans in North Carolina are considering a bill that would force transgender people to certify and register themselves in a brand new database with what they're calling a "certificate of sex reassignment."

The new requirement reads, “The State Registrar shall issue a certificate of sex reassignment upon a written application from an individual 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.”

The World Health Organization and United Nations issued a statement two years ago calling for the end of any requirement that transgender people undergo sterilizing surgeries to achieve legal recognition.

As Zack Ford at ThinkProgress points out, not all transgender people undergo reassignment surgery nor do they necessarily need to.

The bill currently being considered in the North Carolina House would not end the state's ban on transgender bathroom use or repeal the requirement that transgender individuals undergo reassignment surgery before they can alter their birth certificate. It would simply make them jump through an additional hoop to be recognized as the gender they identity as if they go through the previous steps.

Republicans in the state undoubtedly believe they've got it all figured out, but this will do nothing to halt the legal and economic shitstorm that has descended on the state nor will it sway the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals when it reaches their courtroom.

Governor Pat McCrory needs to be defeated in November.