LGBT activists protest at Capitol over bills to reverse transgender bathroom rules

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- LGBT advocates protested at the state Capitol Tuesday against what they are calling "anti-trans bathroom bills."

To get their message across, they decided to tee-pee the offices of state Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn.

They say the bathroom bill, which recently passed out of committee, prevents transgender people from using the bathroom of the sex to which they identify.

They also delivered a written statement to legislators.

On Jan. 27, the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee voted 4-3 to send to the full Senate a bill that would eliminate Washington's new rule allowing transgender people to use bathrooms and locker rooms in public buildings consistent with their gender identity.


Democratic Senators Bob Hasegawa of Seattle and Steve Conway of Tacoma voted against the bill, saying the rule created by the state Human Rights Commission was protecting civil rights.

But the chairman of the Commerce and Labor Committee, Michael Baumgartner, said anyone interpreting the elimination of the policy as "some kind of judgment or castigation of the transgender community," would be wrong.

Baumgartner and many at an earlier hearing argued against the existing policy, saying people might use it to sexually assault women.