XPost: alt.gossip.celebrities, alt.politics.democrats.d, sac.general   
   XPost: alt.rush-limbaugh   
   From: deplorable.redneck@nytimes.com   
      
   I'm perfectly fine with that.  Fuck off, Vox.   
      
   A proposed Housing and Urban Development rule would allow   
   federally funded homeless shelters to judge a person’s physical   
   characteristics, such as height and facial hair, in determining   
   whether they belong in a women’s or men’s shelter, according to   
   a copy of the rule’s text obtained by Vox. Advocates say this   
   ultimately targets both trans women and cisgender women with   
   masculine features, which could force them into men’s shelters   
   and put them at risk for harm.   
      
   The proposed rule, first announced by HUD in a press release   
   issued on July 1, would essentially reverse the Obama-era rule   
   that required homeless shelters to house trans people according   
   to their gender identity. While the new rule would bar shelters   
   from excluding people based on their transgender status, it   
   would also allow shelters to ignore a person’s gender identity —   
   and instead house them according to their assigned sex at birth   
   or their legal sex. In other words, a trans woman can’t be   
   turned away from a shelter for being trans, but she can be   
   forced to go to a men’s shelter.   
      
   Dylan Waguespack, a spokesperson for True Colors United, an   
   advocacy group that focuses on supporting LGBTQ homeless youth,   
   told Vox in early June that HUD Secretary Ben Carson is “talking   
   out of both sides of his mouth.”   
      
   “They are trying to put forward this narrative in which   
   transgender people are protected from discrimination, but in   
   fact, when you read the proposal itself, it does the exact   
   opposite,” he told Vox. “It creates unsafe conditions and unsafe   
   barriers to housing and services for trans people in the midst   
   of a global pandemic.”   
      
   The copy of the rule obtained by Vox has already passed   
   congressional review, according to several sources familiar with   
   the process, which is one of many steps needed before the text   
   is released publicly. When asked about the text and status of   
   the rule, HUD pointed Vox to their July 1 press release.   
      
   The rule’s language, according to the leaked text, states that   
   single-sex shelter staff “may determine an individual’s sex   
   based on a good faith belief that an individual seeking access   
   to the temporary, emergency shelters is not of the sex, as   
   defined in the single-sex facility’s policy, which the facility   
   accommodates.”   
      
   In order to do this, HUD will allow shelter staff to take into   
   account “factors such as height, the presence (but not the   
   absence) of facial hair, the presence of an Adam’s apple, and   
   other physical characteristics which, when considered together,   
   are indicative of a person’s biological sex.”   
      
   In essence, the proposed rule encourages women’s-only shelter   
   staff to use a visual appraisal of a woman’s appearance to judge   
   whether that person is woman enough to use the facility.   
      
   If a shelter operator judges a homeless woman’s appearance to   
   not fit what they believe is her assigned sex at birth, they   
   would then be allowed to ask for proof of that person’s sex   
   before housing her in the women’s facility.   
      
   “Evidence requested must not be unduly intrusive of privacy,   
   such as private physical anatomical evidence. Evidence requested   
   could include government identification, but lack of government   
   identification alone cannot be the sole basis for denying   
   admittance on the basis of sex,” reads the rule’s text, as it   
   currently stands.   
      
   There are two main problems with forcing trans homeless people   
   into spaces that correspond with their birth-assigned gender   
   rather than their gender identity. The first is that such a   
   policy exposes trans people, especially trans women, to   
   potential violence and sexual assault inside those spaces. And   
   as a result, trans people are more likely to choose sleeping in   
   the streets rather than risk going to a shelter.   
      
   Because of a cycle of discrimination and poverty, trans people   
   are more likely than their cisgender peers to experience   
   homelessness. According to the National Center for Transgender   
   Equality, 29 percent of trans people live in poverty, and one in   
   five trans people in the US will be homeless at some point in   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)