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With masked paramilitary<\/span> forces<\/a> grabbing nonwhite people from the streets and shooting<\/a> civilians with impunity<\/a>, it can be difficult to keep focus on all the other ways Republicans are entrenching a fascist status quo nationwide. For trans people, however, the legislative and policy assaults, which have been escalating red states for nearly a decade, are only getting worse \u2014 and, as ever, drawing all too little concern<\/a> from Democratic leaders.<\/p>\n Just last week, the Kansas legislature passed some of the most far-reaching measures to push trans and gender-nonconforming people out of public life to date. Bathroom bans that bar trans people from restrooms aligned with their gender identity have become grimly common; over 20 states have such a law on the books. But Kansas\u2019s new anti-trans bathroom bill adds a dangerous twist: a bounty hunter provision.<\/p>\n The law would permit private citizens to sue and seek monetary reward based on claiming to encounter a trans person in the bathroom. That\u2019s on top of some of the harshest punishments\u00a0of any existing<\/a> bathroom bans, such as criminal charges, steep fines and even jail time.<\/p>\n As journalist and trans rights advocate Erin Reed first reported<\/a>, the bill\u2019s vague language means that its reach could extend beyond public buildings \u2014 the remit of most bathroom bans around the country.<\/p>\n \u201cAs written, it would not only be the first bathroom bounty law to target transgender people directly, but also the first to extend a bathroom ban into private spaces,\u201d noted Reed, \u201ceffectively creating the nation\u2019s first private bathroom ban if enacted by empowering bounty hunters to search for trans people in bathrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The language of the bill, while vague, says that any person who alleges to be \u201caggrieved\u201d by the presence of a trans person they encounter in a restroom facility can file a civil suit against that individual for \u201cdamages\u201d of at least $1,000.<\/p>\n Kansas Republicans rushed through the bathroom ban, skirting public comment by essentially sneaking the bill into another piece of legislation aimed at denying trans people correct government IDs. The ID legislation is in and of itself extreme: it would invalidate driver\u2019s licenses, government IDs, and even birth certificates that don\u2019t list a person\u2019s sex as assigned at birth.<\/p>\n The bill would require trans people to surrender their correctly identifying driver\u2019s license or risk a misdemeanor offense for driving with a invalid license. Trans Kansans would thus have to choose between carrying identification with their assigned sex at birth \u2014 inviting potentially further harassment and violence in public \u2014 or forgoing aspects of public life entirely. It\u2019s a policy in line with the Trump administration\u2019s move to stop issuing accurate passports<\/a> to trans Americans.<\/p>\n The aim is to produce a climate of distrust and terror.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The bathroom bounty hunter ban was then layered on top of the ID law in a so-called \u201cgut and go\u201d maneuver.<\/p>\n The twin bills passed both the state House and Senate with over two-thirds of the vote, given the significant Republican majority \u2014 enough to override a veto from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.<\/p>\n \u201cTransgender people are already vulnerable to violence, especially in restrooms, and this bill layers prospective physical violence on top of the existing privacy violation of forced changes to identification documents,\u201d said Logan DeMond, director of policy and research at the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n The fondness <\/a>of Trumpian Republicans for bounty hunter laws comes as no surprise, recalling the dark legacies of Fugitive Slave Act laws and Jim Crow civilian surveillance. Now, whether criminalizing abortions<\/a>, rounding up immigrants<\/a>, or policing gender<\/a> expression, far-right leaders and think tanks embrace vigilante violence as a key mechanism of enforcement. The aim is to produce a climate of distrust and terror.<\/p>\n Anti-trans zealots have been harassing people they believe to be trans \u2014 including multiple incidents involving cis women \u2014 even without the promise of financial payoff. The Kansas legislation only \u201cturbocharges,\u201d as Reed put it, the violent policing of access to public life.<\/p>\n \u201cI have sat here for five and a half hours and listened to this entire room debate my humanity and my ability to participate in the most basic functions of society,\u201d said<\/a> Kansas Democratic state Rep. Abi Boatman, who is the only trans lawmaker in the state, when the new legislation was debated. \u201cI hope none of you have to ever sit through something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n It should not need repeating that it is trans people who overwhelmingly<\/a> face harassment and violence in bathroom facilities; the framing<\/a> of bathroom bills as a question of cis women\u2019s safety has always been a bunk excuse to enforce gender conformism. It should also be obvious that any laws encouraging the surveillance and control of our bodies, particularly with women\u2019s bodies as the site of paranoiac anti-trans obsession, make all women less safe. And as with any such laws, it is always Black trans and cis women who face the worst scrutiny.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n