Gender Bender: 'Coed locker rooms' spark citizen backlash
Pastor Dale Morgan
Gender Bender: 'Coed locker rooms' spark citizen backlash*
Law protects people with 'gender identity issues' in public accommodations
Posted: December 11, 2007
Citizens of Montgomery County, Md., have launched a petition drive
against a law they say essentially would allow people to choose their
gender when using public facilities.
"This is a bad law all around and should be repealed," said Michelle
Turner, a spokeswoman for the new group planning to operate under the
name Maryland Citizens for Responsible Government.
Its website, Not My Shower, already has been launched.
The new statute was first given the green light by elected officials in
Montgomery County and now has been signed into law by County Executive
Ike Leggett.
"By the stroke of a very powerful pen, County Executive Leggett has
broken the biological barriers that separate male and female
facilities," the group announcement said. "No longer will women and
girls be able to feel completely safe in the most private and personal
bathroom and locker facilities of schools, public pools, malls, stores,
health clubs, restaurants and other such public places throughout the
county."
The organization said Leggett's signature on Bill 23-07 means even
religious schools could be forced to hire transgender teachers "and then
also allow cross-dressing but biological males in your daughters' school
locker room."
Patrick Lacefield, the county's communications director, said that it's
a free country, and "if people want to try to gather signatures, to put
a measure that's been signed, passed unanimously by the council and
signed into law by the executive, that's their right."
He said the county's legal team advised that its provisions for
protections for those with "gender identity issues" would not apply to
"intimate facilities" such as restrooms and locker rooms.
However, he admitted nowhere in the law is that stated specifically.
"We do not feel that it was necessary to explicitly state that," he said.
The original draft of the law left the issue unstated. Then council
members added specific language addressing the issue, specifying that
such protections would include restrooms and locker rooms, then
ultimately returned to the original draft, which contains no
specifications in that regard, he said.
The law protects those with "gender identity" issues and then defines
gender identity as "an individual's actual or perceived gender,
including a person's gender-related appearance, expression, image,
identity, or behavior, whether or not those gender-related
characteristics differ from the characteristics customarily associated
with the person's assigned sex at birth."
The organization said its referendum to prevent implementation of the
plan already has been filed, and "we are calling on every concerned
Montgomery County citizen to join us in this huge undertaking."
The plan also could be targeted by a court action, according to
officials with an advocacy law firm.
"The definition for 'gender identity' is so vague that no individual of
ordinary intelligence can possibly know when they are violating Chapter
27," Robert Tyler, general counsel for the Advocates for Faith &
Freedom, told county officials in a letter.
"Pursuant to the definition of 'gender identity,' an individual can
choose a gender without limitation whatsoever," he said.
His comments noted the law creates a protected class of citizenry for
individuals who claim a "gender identity" issue.
The proposal generated a groundswell of opposition when it became known.
Now the citizens' group will need to collect the signatures of more than
25,000 registered voters in about 90 days, before a Feb. 16, 2008, deadline.
Dr. Ruth Jacobs is serving as president of the group. She's an expert on
infectious diseases and already has been active in a battle fought by a
group called Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum to fight the local
school district's explicit sex education program that has been
challenged as factually incorrect.
She said she suggested that a provision be added to the law to protect
the safety and privacy of women and children.
"Instead, the council explicitly added restrooms, showers, locker rooms
and other such areas to the bill," she said.
"The council and county executive have publicly stated that access to
these areas will be decided by their operators. But all they are doing
is kicking the issue into the lap of the county's Human Rights
Commission, which is on record saying it will grant bathroom rights to
transgenders according to their perceived gender when a case is brought
before it," Turner said.
"We salute CRG for being willing to speak out on behalf of the people of
Montgomery County and our young people who will be affected by
propaganda. We urge our friends to assist CRG in gathering signatures
for this referendum," said Peter Sprigg, vice president for policy for
the Family Research Council.
In a recent commentary, Olivia St. John wondered about why such
legislation was even considered, "particularly for a small segment of
people described by the American Psychiatric Association as disordered?"
The answer? she found: "The Transgender Law Center, or TLC – an
organization dedicated to getting legal information into the hands of
community members, attorneys, educators and others – designed a
descriptive resource guide for transgender activists and their
homosexual, lesbian and bisexual allies. The document, titled "Peeing in
Peace," promotes "gender neutral restrooms" in all sectors of society.
Not surprisingly, it was partially funded by Clinton supporter George
Soros and the Tides Foundation, generously supported by Teresa Kerry,
wife of Sen. John Kerry."
St. John continued, "The problem, according to TLC, is that many
transgendered people have few safe places to go to the bathroom. They
claim to 'get harassed … and arrested in BOTH women's and men's rooms.'
One sufferer, who had clearly entered a restroom of the opposite sex,
whined that he had been 'dragged out by security guards.'
"Amusingly, this sounds as if the fuss is over 'peeing rights,' or about
who has the right to urinate where. But think again. Seriously consider
that your child is likely to find transsexualism not only discussed but
also actively practiced in his public school at some point," she said.
As was reported, a resident, identified as "Lisa," wrote to her elected
representative on the board: "From what I'm reading, the person with the
gender identity confusion is being protected by what she or he FEELS he
or she is. Thus, we'd have to protect this person's gender based upon
what is in his or her MIND. So, if I'm in a bathroom all by myself late
at night, and a man walks in, I am supposed to be okay with this? If I'm
at a pool, in a women's locker room, and a man walks in – I'm supposed
to be okay with this? This is truly unbelievable, and I'm embarrassed
that Montgomery County is even spending its time on this piece of nonsense."
Officials for Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays were raising concerns.
"Any time politicians write a law that violates the rights of others by
forcibly invading their privacy, and forcing faith-based organizations
and small employers to hire cross-dressers is bad law," said Regina
Griggs, executive director of PFOX.
Griggs noted, however, the American Psychiatric Association classifies
gender identity disorder as a treatable mental illness, and Tyler called
for county officials to start protecting and representing the citizens
in the county.
"The female residents of Montgomery County clearly have a right of
privacy that prohibits all persons of the opposite sex 'from using a
restroom, locker room, or other similar facility designated for
females,'" Tyler said. "It is ridiculous to place the desires of persons
suffering from gender identity disorder in front of the constitutional
rights and safety of 99 percent of the residents in Montgomery County."
The county assumptions about the law's application were challenged by an
analysis by Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum noted otherwise. It
says the plan "will allow males who self identify themselves as females
to have open access to ALL women's and girls' rest rooms, locker rooms,
dressing rooms, and showers. In other words, a male teacher or student
will be able to use the female restrooms and locker rooms if he thinks
he is a female."
This is just the latest battle Griggs and PFOX have encountered in the
region. The pro-homosexual group Truth Wins Out earlier accused her of
fabricating a report that a "gay" assaulted a volunteer at a county fair
booth. Police later confirmed for WND that the incident did happen as
Griggs reported.
In fact, police said they located the suspect based on the victim's
description and ended up escorting him off the fairgrounds.
PFOX also is engaged in a fight in Montgomery County seeking a court
order to halt a public school sex curriculum because it contains
"scientifically flawed and politically biased" information.
The organization joined with Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum and
the Family Leader Network in filing the request for the court-ordered
stay of the program targeting middle school and high school students in
the district.
The organizations said the local board, headed by Nancy Navarro, adopted
the curriculum that teaches anal sex as unexceptional and "intentionally
excludes" warnings issued by the Centers for Disease Control and the
National Institutes of Health of the high medical dangers related to
those behaviors.
"The curriculum also teaches students that homosexuality is 'innate,' a
controversial and unproven theory advanced by gay advocacy groups
serving on the Montgomery County School Board's curriculum advisory
committee," the groups' statement said.
Edward L. White III, trial counsel with the Thomas More Law Center, a
prominent public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Mich., is
assisting PFOX and the pro-family groups in their lawsuit against the
school board.
The curriculum includes lessons intended for eighth-graders and adopts
the language and points of emphasis employed by promoters of
homosexuality. Also, 10th-graders will be taught about making
announcements that they are homosexual and how to use a condom.