On March 23, North Carolina legislators approving a bill that prevents cities and counties from passing their own anti-discrimination rules. Gov. Pat McCrory later signed the legislation, which dealt a blow to the LGBTQ movement after success with protections in cities across the country. One clause in the bill forbids transgender people from using the restroom that matches the gender they identify with.
Comero wanted to figure out a way to emphasize how this law will impact his day-to-day existence. He decided the best thing to do is hand out cards like the one below to any woman who appeared apprehensive upon seeing him in the ladies’ room:
Comero tells The Huffington Post:
“The truth is that when folks in the general public are called upon by fellow citizens who happen to be transgender to be curious and compassionate about what it’s like to be a transgender individual, it sticks more.
It’s a new thing for many — and there are many of us (myself included) who are willing to educate and speak with them from a place of love and compassion. That is the purpose of my cards: to show an amount of absurdity about the law and to educate folks [about] what being transgender means.”
Since the bill was signed, Comero tells HuffPo he’s already handed out some of the cards, and recounts a recent interaction he had with a woman at the government center in Charlotte.
A government employee told Comero he was in the ladies’ room, and when he tried to give her the card, she declined. Then, he explained to her what he was doing in there.
When Comero ran into her later that day, it occurred to him: “She possibly doesn’t know what it means to be a transgender man.”
