Letter
To The
Editor
(Editor’s Note: Letters to the Editor are published to encourage our readers to express their views about various issues. The following letter(s) were submitted and signed by those voicing their opinions through the “Letter To The Editor” section) I have concerns about the recent law passed by the Kansas Legislature. I am not addressing the most vital human rights issue of stripping citizens of their privilege to drive, which in Kansas is roughly equal to a right to earn a living, but I have a personal concern that may seem peculiar to you or your readers. I am a straight cis-gender woman of a certain age. I am built tall and broad shouldered. I am a jeans and tee-shirt kind of a gal, and when I wear my hair short, which I sometimes do, I have been addressed as 'Sir' from behind (apparently it's much easier to tell I'm a woman from the front).
I'm thinking about the kind of person who would be desperate enough for one thousand dollars that they would drop a dime on a person if they thought they saw them going into the wrong bathroom. How intelligent or discerning is such an individual likely to be?
How does this work? Am I immediately stripped of my license until I present some state official with my birth certificate or a doctor's statement? Will I be confronted and investigated by police when that 'concerned citizen' calls? I guess I need to know my rights in this situation because frankly I am worried about everyone's rights.
This is so incredibly intrusive and I'm not going to change the way I dress, and I probably will still wear my hair short sometimes as it is very thick and every few years a summer comes along that is too hot for me to wear it long.
Please don't misunderstand, I am far from the most aggrieved person in this situation, but now I will worry every time I need to excuse myself in a public place, because someone there might only see me from the back and might really need a thousand dollars.
Thanks for your time. Pam Sweany
