Photo: Micah Drew/ Daily Montanan

Consider the following situation. You’re a middle-aged transgender man who transitioned decades ago. You’re balding, have a beard, and would never in a million years be confused for a woman.

Unfortunately, and bizarrely, however, this makes some North Carolina Republican state legislators uncomfortable, so they want to force you to use women’s restrooms.

Seriously. That’s what they’re seeking to do in a recently introduced Senate bill that would reprise the disastrous HB 2 debacle from a decade ago.

Under the bill, among other things, if a public facility allows a trans person to use a restroom that doesn’t match the gender on their birth certificate, it can be sued for damages and forced to pay untold sums of money.

And it’s hard to overstate just how cruel and ridiculous this is.

The bottom line: It’s been years now since North Carolina last ventured down this road and the opponents of trans rights have yet to document a single credible harm that legislation like this would address.

If ever there was ill-conceived proposal in search of a non-existent problem, this is it.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.