There are many important issues in the world: racism, discrimination, poverty, police brutality. Unfortunately, Republicans   issue of the week,  while it touches on one of those in all the worst ways, is something so unimportant, so petty, that Americans are actually paying attention to the plight of transgender individuals for once.All across the nation, the GOP is focused on making sure that no one with a penis enters a women s restroom, even if they identify as a woman. Kansas, for example, literally wants to place a bounty on transgender individuals with its  spot a penis, win a prize bill, which provides financial incentives for people who simply share a bathroom with a transgender individual to childishly scream  Eek, a penis! Republicans in other states   Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, and South Carolina, and others, are attempting to punish transgender people simply for using the correct restroom while North Carolina and Mississippi, for example, have already passed legislation that punish women who happen to have a penis (let s face it: they aren t concerned with trans men) for going pee.Not to be outdone by the other bigots in our country, one Texas city has thrown itself into the fray with a  bathroom bill  that would levy huge fines against transgender people   though they are attempting a new approach to the matter by claiming that it doesn t target transgender individuals.Now, you may be shaking your head at his point and asking,  F*cking SERIOUSLY?  But we assure you it s true.The New Civil Rights Movement reports:Transgender people could face fines of up to $500 for using restrooms according to their gender identity under an ordinance to be considered by the City Council in Rockwall, Texas, on Monday.The ordinance, submitted by Rockwall Mayor Jim Pruitt (photo), would require people to use restrooms according to their  biological sex,  as shown on their birth certificates. It would also bar businesses from allowing trans people to use restrooms according to their gender identity. I just think that it s insanity not to have those protections in place,  Pruitt, a Republican, told WFAA-TV.  These folks aren t transgender that this is targeting. This is targeting folks of the opposite sex that are going into those restrooms under the guise of being transgender and having access.  This is not about sexual orientation or anything of that nature. It is about privacy and the protection of our children. Republicans love to claim that they are protecting women and children with these obviously discriminatory pieces of legislation but the truth is that there isn t a single verifiable instance of a transgender individual so much as harassing a non-transgender person in a bathroom. None. Nada. Zilch. In fact, if they truly wanted to protect women and children in bathrooms, Republican lawmakers would ban Republican lawmakers from entering bathrooms at all.At this point, everyone needs to recognize these bills for what they are. They keep no one safe. They do not prevent crime. They do not protect women or children. They do not make sense when one looks at crime statistics. What they do is perpetuate a culture of hate and fear among the poorly-educated and bigoted in society. They increase the chance that women   cisgender or trans   will be harassed by stupid people who think they don t look feminine enough. They do nothing but promote exactly the sort of mentality that reasonable people have been trying to eliminate every single time conservatives find a new group of people at whom they can level their irrational hatred.But they do accomplish one positive thing: They bring attention to the plight of a group of people who regularly face discrimination, yet whose cries for help are ignored.Watch one example of the sort of nonsense this legislation encourages below:  Featured image via Tumblr