A controversial North Carolina bill that would prohibit people from using public bathrooms that do not conform to their biological sex has brought transgender rights into the national spotlight. The Onion presents a timeline of transgender rights in America.
- 1776-2016: Sanctity of American bathrooms remains pure and inviolable
- 1789: In a huge blow for transgender rights, North Carolina admitted to Union
- 1959: A fight breaks out between Los Angeles police and transgender patrons at Cooper’s Donuts, a watershed moment indicating that the trans community is now large enough to be afraid of
- 1966: Dr. Harry Benjamin publishes The Transsexual Phenomenon, a pivotal book detailing how transgender individuals could medically transition from one sex to being completely ostracized by society
- 1969: Historic riots turn New York’s Stonewall Inn into an LGBT cultural mecca, much to the annoyance of the bar’s everyday regulars who are forced to find a new low-key happy hour spot
- 1975: Minneapolis is the first city to outlaw discrimination against trans people, forcing the trans community to accept the fact that living in Minnesota might be their best bet
- 1980: The revised Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders officially recognizes the term “gender identity disorder” in an attempt to be more open-minded about exactly what is wrong with transgender individuals
- 1993: Virginia man William Meyers, 51, definitively states that he can’t think of any reason why someone would want to do that to themselves
- 1994: A trans-dedicated AOL chatroom draws thousands of visitors each month, marking the first and last time an AOL chatroom had any positive effect on humanity
- 2012: Girl Scouts of Colorado welcome anyone identifying as a girl so long as she can fucking move boxes of Thin Mints
- 2013: Father gently asked not to use word “tranny”
- 2015: John Boehner does damnedest to maintain neutral facial expression as President Obama talks about transgender rights in State of the Union
- 2016-2020: Anti-LGBTQ lawmakers forced to get pretty creative
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