Dear [Your Elected Official],

<p>Please, vote NO on House Bill 1949 on February 13 in the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee. This bill is a massive example of government overreach that will result in false accusations beccause of its vagueness. The bill obviously targets transgender people and attempts to make it impossible to use restrooms and changing rooms without fear. This bill would do that while making it a nightmare for businesses to comply. It will also increase liability for businesses and nonprofit organizations and result in confusion. Please, ask hard questions about how large and small businesses are supposed to implement it and whether it is going to enforced in arbitary ways. Please, also ask what is the demonstrated need for the bill.</p> <p><strong>Let's take the issue of business liability</strong>. CBIZ notes in the 2024 outlook on their website: "The general liability insurance landscape has undergone significant transformations in response to the rising frequency and severity of claims. Consequently, insurers have adopted stricter underwriting standards, capacity constraints and multiple rate increases." The vagueness of this bill will make it hard for businesses and workplaces to implement while their liability increases. Businesses already have a significant liability burden. This bill could either increase costs or make it tougher for high-traffic businesses to get insurance.</p> <p><strong>False accusations</strong>: Again, the vagueness of the bill and the use of subjective terms like "offend or embarrass" opens the door to a wide range of interpretations. In those situations, the risk of false accusations rises. False accusations unfortunately often have patterns rooted in race. A September 27, 2022 Reuters story by Hassan Kanu noted, "More than half of the people convicted of crimes and later exonerated because they were innocent are Black."</p> <p>In order to be fair laws must be clear. This bill is neither.</p> <p>Thank you for considering my views.</p>