(CNN)

Missouri transgender teen Lila Perry says she began to feel like a girl when she was 13 and started appearing as one in school this year when classes began in August.

The past couple of days have brought a wave of backlash against a new North Carolina law that bars local governments from extending civil rights protections to gay and transgender people and prohibits transgender people from using public bathrooms according to their gender identity.

The issue ignited a torrent of reaction on social media. American Airlines, Wells Fargo, Lowe’s and the National Basketball Association are among the companies and organizations that have raised concerns about the measure, which passed both houses during a special session of the legislature this week and was promptly signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory (R). Hundreds of protesters flocked to downtown Raleigh to demonstrate in front of the executive mansion; a handful were arrested after apparently chaining themselves to one another in the street. Advocacy groups said the law unfairly demonizes the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

The Republican-controlled legislature backed the law in order to override a local ordinance passed by officials in Charlotte. That measure would have expanded civil rights protections for individuals on the basis of marital status, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression. It also would have allowed transgender people  to use bathrooms aligned with their gender identity, rather than the gender on their birth certificate.

read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/03/25/wrong-beyond-repair-the-worst-in-us-n-c-papers-blast-transgender-bathroom-law/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_ncvoices_pn_250pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

From the Betoota Advocate (fake satirical news for those who are still waking up):

AS THERE’S NOW ALMOST THREE TIMES as many genders as there was twenty years ago, the current toilet signage found throughout the world is coming under fire from everyday people.

While being insensitive to melange sexualities and genders, the signs have also come under attack for not reinforcing a positive body image because of how the legs of the figures are depicted.

Now the original designers are being asked to come up with an alternative.

Speaking from a university lawn this morning, one socialist remarked that the archaic and patriarchal signs need to go before any more harm is done to self-esteems.

“The signage on toilet doors reinforce a negative body image. Just recently when I emptied myself into a Circular Quay public toilet, I heard a child ask it’s mother” ‘Mummy, why don’t my legs look like that?’ From then on, I needed to do something, just as long as it wasn’t too hard,” said Sydney University phrenology student Ashely Cameron.

“By taking a stand against institutions like the one educating me, people should start to get that the current toilet signage around the globe doesn’t exactly scream 2016.”

When asked what a viable alternative could be, Cameron reminded us that other non-Western cultures have gone without fat shaming toilet door signage for nearly the entirety of recorded history.

“Just look at parts of Asia, they don’t have any oppressive signage anywhere. They have a system of open defecation that’s both better for the environment and healing for people with self-esteem issues. If Clover Moore got off her arse and created some designated shitting streets for people to de-cork their colon wine, we’d all be much better off.”

The Advocate approached the Attorney-General’s office for comment but we were told that if we try to contact them again, we wouldn’t last longer than a useless dog on a sheep station...

http://www.betootaadvocate.com/uncategorized/oppressive-body-shaming-box-gap-toilet-signage-could-be-phased-out/

Sign on the dunny door: why isn't my body looking like this?...

President Barack Obama said that his understanding of the Bible and his Christian beliefs led him to issue the directive at public schools calling on students to be allowed to use the bathroom of their choosing regardless of their biological sex.

"My reading of scripture tells me that that [the] Golden Rule is pretty high up there in terms of my Christian belief," he said during a town hall in Elkhart, Indiana, according to Breitbart News [see also: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/31873] on Thursday.

When asked why he decided to make such a big issue out of school bathrooms, Obama explained that his concern stems from the bullying that transgender students experience.

"What happened and what continues to happen is you have transgender kids in schools and they get bullied and they get ostracized and it's tough for them," the president explained.

Obama said that he understands not all people agree with him, and added:

"I have profound respect for everybody's religious beliefs on this, but if you're at a public school, the question is, how do we just make sure that, children are treated with kindness."

The directive issued earlier in May states that students should be free to use the bathroom of their choosing should a parent or guardian call and notify his or her school district that the student's identity "differs from previous representations or records."

"There is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex," U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement at the time.

Eleven American states filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration at the end of May over the directive, however, arguing that the guidance has "no basis in law."

Using a toilet is such a normal part of our daily lives — yet for 2.5 billion people around the world — access to a private and clean toilet is a luxury that remains out of reach.

Instead, they are forced to go to the toilet outdoors which contaminates water sources and that in turn gives rise to contaminated-water born diseases like diarrhea and acute respiratory infection.

Diseases like these kill one child every 20 seconds — diarrhoeal disease caused by poor sanitation kills more children every year than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.

The World Toilet Organisation aims to tackle the global sanitation crisis and this week it's holding its annual summit in Melbourne.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/melbourne-hosts-w...

See also: another day, another toilet...

In an interview published in the UK's Spectator, where he was asked if his famous character Dame Edna Everage had sparked backlash among transgender activists, Humphries, 84, called "transgenderism" a "fashion".

"How many different kinds of lavatory can you have? And it's pretty evil when it's preached to children by crazy teachers," he told theSpectator.

Responding to a statistic that "more than 40 per cent of trans men and women have attempted or considered suicide", Humphries described activists' calls to have transphobia "treated in law as a form of assault" as "terrible ratbaggery".

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/shut-up-and-retire-barry-...

This reminds me that I never liked the satire of Barry Humphries...

"Astonishment" was the word Budapest's Central European University (CEU) used in response to the government's measures – "without any justification or antecedent" – first proposed last year and outlined in detail earlier this month. The 44 students enrolled in the master's program at the George Soros-backed university would be allowed to complete their courses, alongside the 10-person intake at the state-funded ELTE, the only other Hungarian university to teach the discipline. But from next year onwards, the ministry of education will not spend public funds on gender studies, nor award diplomas for completing a degree (though CEU students can continue to study for the English-language US-certified degree).

READ MORE: 'Christian democracy’ to crush multiculturalism in EU vote next year – Hungary’s Orban

The decision places Hungary radically at odds with the rest of the Western world. From Croatia to Ireland, every other EU state has at least one functioning gender studies program, and in the US, the number has risen threefold in the last three decades, with courses offered at over 350 higher learning institutions.

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/436329-hungary-gender-studies-ban-orban/

Read from top.

See also:

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/33128