Bathrooms, Always Bathrooms

The right-wingers are out to torpedo the expected approval by the Montgomery County Council of a bill to outlaw discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations on the basis of gender identity.

I recently received a copy of an alert from Don Wildmon’s American Family Association, categorizing this as a bill that would legalize indecent exposure. The latest right-wing talking point seems to be that girls in restrooms and locker rooms will be forced to see male genitalia from a man dressed as a woman.

Their e-mail states:

"’Any place of public accommodation...must not...make any distinction based on gender identity.’ Gender identity is defined as ‘an individual's actual or perceived gender...’ The bill puts girls and women at risk by opening women's restrooms and locker rooms to men who dress as women. The bill virtually eliminates gender distinctions by allowing Montgomery County residents to choose if they are male or female even when the choice conflicts with their biological sex.

“The bill, slated for a vote on Tuesday, Nov. 13, would add 'gender identity' as a protected class for 'transgenders.' It would guarantee the right to use public facilities consistent with the person's gender identity ‘publicly and exclusively expressed or asserted.’ No sex change is necessary.”

Of course, this is just a red herring. You don't hear the bill's opponents demanding fairness to transgender people, saying that they would happily support a tough anti-discrimination bill as long as the bathroom issue were somehow "taken care of."

But, just for the sake of argument, let’s take them at their word: Let’s categorize everything by genitalia, ignoring all other factors.

Take an anatomically male person who identifies as a woman and who presents herself as a woman in every way (clothing, make-up, etc.). Let’s call her Dale. What do you think would happen to Dale upon entering and using a men’s bathroom? I suspect she’d be beaten up. At a minimum, she’d have to live with the terror of physical assault every time she used a public restroom, locker room, etc.

The Christian right says they don’t want Dale using women’s facilities. But would they be comfortable with someone appearing to be a woman using men’s facilities? Somehow, I doubt it. So what do they want people like Dale to do?

What members of the religious right really seem to want is a world where transgender people don’t exist.

But transgender people do exist. And it is long past time for our society to welcome them as part of us.

I hope none of the County Council members buckle under to the hate mail and calls they are receiving from the right-wingers.