Florida's Transgender Bathroom Rule Angers Conservatives

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A blond girl heads from a playground into a women's restroom. A scruffy man, lurking outside, darts in behind her. "Your City Commission Made This Legal," the words on the TV screen read.

The dark ad came from opponents of a gender identity provision added last year to the city's anti-discrimination ordinance, which now allows the city's roughly 100 transgender residents to use whichever restroom they're most comfortable using.

Foes want to repeal the new protection with a March 24 ballot measure that has divided Gainesville, a generally gay-friendly university city surrounded by staunchly conservative north Florida.

Those who support the transgender protections say their opponents are really unleashing a broader attack on the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender individuals in general.

The city commission approved the restroom provision by a 4-3 vote a year ago. Before the ink could dry, Bible-quoting opponents angrily began working for its repeal.

"You are trying to operate in a realm you do not have the authority to operate in," one pastor, George Brantley, told the commissioners.

The debate is expected to become noisier as the ballot nears with opponents resorting to more TV ads and campaigns pegged to such slogans as "Keep Men out of Women's Restrooms and vice versa."

Organizations defending transgender rights are mustering their own campaign.

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The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force notes 108 cities and counties nationwide have similar transgender protections. An attempt to repeal an ordinance in Montgomery County, Md., failed when a court ruled opponents did not collect enough signatures to place it on the ballot.

Citizens for Good Public Policy, the group behind the commercial that aired last summer in Gainesville, collected more than 6,000 signatures last summer to win a referendum. If approved, the repeal measure would also prevent the commission from adding protections beyond what the state requires: race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability and marital status.

Cain Davis, chairman of Citizens for Good Public Policy, said the issue is about regulating a "government gone wild" and ensuring public safety, charging that sexual predators could now simply enter a women's restroom claiming to be a transgender individual.

"We know when men go into women's restrooms, bad things can happen," Davis said.

City Commissioner Craig Lowe, leader of a group called Equality is Gainesville's Business, called the ads from Davis' group a grossly distorted attempt to whip up fears.

Lowe's group believes anti-discrimination protections for people who change their sexual orientation are good for business and foster diversity. He noted that 433 of the Fortune 500 companies have policies covering sexual orientation and 153 cover gender identity.

Since the ordinance took effect, police have reported no problems in public restrooms stemming from the law.

Retired postal worker Donna Lee, who became a female with surgery in 2001, moved to Gainesville from Ocala last March after hearing about the anti-discrimination ordinance. The 60-year-old is working to save the protections.

"We just want to live our lives with the basic civil rights that everyone else has," Lee said.

But some are taking no chances.

Computer programmer Clare Holman, who was born male but now lives as a female, said she simply stays away from public toilets.

"I don't want to run afoul of the law by using the wrong restroom," Holman said.

___

On the Net:

Equality is Gainesville's Business: http://equalitygainesville.com

Citizens for Good Public Policy: http://citizensforgoodpublicpolicy.org

Comments

[RobinSeattle]

Oh here we go. Next, you will see the Republicans propose a Defense of Water Closets amendment to the Constitution. I hear that Larry Craig and Dan Crane want to head up that effort.

[rocketman69]

Why is the water in your closet so important it needs to be defended?

[Gunga-Din]

No problem.De­ms deserve a special bathroom.

[BeasleysMom]

Wait a minute. Can't men go in women's bathrooms anywhere? All they have to do is open the door and walk in. Or are there guards waitng to turn them away? Unrepressed women always use men's bathrooms if they are empty and if there is too long of a line at the women's facility. Guess they are all liberals, though.

[jukesgrrl]

That's what I was thinking.

[wolfgangmo]

I've gone into a women's room when the need was pressing and it was empty. I've noticed that they are cleaner.

[MalloMel]

I was recently at Charles De Gaul Airport in Paris, and I noticed that the bathrooms there are transgendered. Men were lined up at the stalls and women and men were going in and out of the booths. No one seemed to pay any attention, except me. I was really taken aback.

And, they have a much lower rate of rape, illegitimacy and pedophilia there then here. As a matter of fact, they have a much lower rate of just about everything bad. I wonder why we are so hung up, but it doesn't seem to do us any good?

[MalloMel]

Sorry... I said transgendered, when I should have said unisex.

[CSP]

Heck, i had to deliver a letter to a sailor on board a Dutch maritime vessel--in the shower room. Male and female sailors were showering together and no one seemed to have a problem, get weird or uptight, or inappropriate. I think Americans have some serious growing up to do when it comes to gender and sex.

[mabinog]

Exactly, CSP the only thing that is filthy is what is going on in the small minds of cons.

[dutchman]

American conservatives have taken the most beautiful thing two (or more) consenting adults can do between them and turned it into something to be ashamed of. I don't think it an accident that the U.S. suffers from so much sexual violence when compared to Europe - too many people in the U.S. have an unhealthy relationship with sex.

[dutchman]

Yep - and in Amsterdam's airport you may be surprised to find a person of the opposite gender cleaning the loo -while you are using it. It took some getting used to, but now my stage fright is gone!

Reminds me of when I mistakenly used a women's bog at New Orleans' airport. As I was washing my hands a woman came in and somewhat embarrassingly asked if it was the women's bathroom she was in. Blushing, I said "it is now!".

Dutchman

[gnorrfa]

the good ol' politics of fear. make 'em afraid. fear wins. that and a vast supply ignorance.

[AlP]

BINGO!

[BeasleysMom]

Conservatives would love to keep this country in the dark ages through use of their voodoo and fear tactics. In many European countries, there are communal bathrooms. The sinks and mirrors are right inside the door. Each toilet is contained in a completely enclosed lockable stall. Works fine unless you have a problem washing yours hands alongside of someone of the opposite sex. If conservatives would have spent time in the past on important issues instead of this nonsense, this country would be in better shape today.

[wolfgangmo]

They can't help it. It's like a reflex.

Dr. Ruby Paine has done interesting research on generational poverty and the mindset and paradigms that result. I think it is very applicable here.

http://homepages.wmich.edu/~ljohnson/Payne.pdf This page gives a decent overview. It is interesting to note that some homeschool internet sites really don't like her work. I guess she hits too close to home.

What I found most interesting is the the very wealthy and the very poor have similar mindsets about many things which might explain the GOP's base.

[sherbug]

Most parents would accompany their playground age children to any restroom. That just goes along with being a parent and protecting your kids.

There was a case a few years ago about an 8 year old girl that was raped in the bathroom of a McDonalds by a straight man. I always wondered how this creep got enough time alone with this child to rape her. Where was her mother?

The point is parents are responsible for protecting their young children, but we should not try to regulate where people can pee.

[TrnsNtnl]

Uhg the tyrany of the bible vs humanity again... enough.

[forpeace]

*

"Florida's Transgender Bathroom Rule Angers Conservatives"

........ conservatives like Larry Craig!!!!!!

*

[j.gold]

As long as they don't piss on the seat!

[AlP]

lmao!

[RISwampyankee]

What is it with the x-tian borg and their obsession with bathrooms!?! "

...when men go into women's bathrooms, bad things can happen."

I don't even want to think about the kind of porn Cain Davis hides from his wife.

[marymansour]

This is so obtuse. Europeans have had unisex public bathrooms forever. This resolves the issue of gender. We have elected our first African American President, can't we de-sex the public restrooms?

[ailbhe]

Where? I'm European and regularly travel to visit friends in other European countries. While there may be certain individual establishments which choose to have unisex facilities, I have yet to come across them. It is probably more common in Scandinavian countries.

A man would be arrested if he entered a women's bathroom where I live. I have often seen drunk's go into the women's bathroom in my local nightclubs, always followed by hefty bouncers who grab them by the scruff of the neck and throw them out of the club.

[wolfgangmo]

I agree. It seem the more Catholic the country in the EU, the less likelihood of unisex bathrooms. And let's not even get close to describing how uptight the Brits or the Germans can be.

On the other hand, they have a much more pragmatic viewpoint about sex overall and about gender in specific.

I am not making the EU out to be a paradise, but they are not so provincial in attitude generally than one finds in the former colonies of north america.

[InstantDogma]

There is no shortage of flat Earthers.

[CelticDragon]

Being a trans woman and not having had facial feminization surgery yet...I usually look for single occupancy womens restrooms when I am out. I can't always tell if I am being "read" or not, and I had problems at a Belk's dressing room once when I was outed. (The store security thought it was ridiculous, and she complained on my behalf to the store management to make allowances)

*sigh*

[generalknox]

Having known a number of transgendered persons (transsexuals and crossdressers), they are no more likely to a) be gay or b) be a rapist than the general population. Research has also demonstrated this. Generally these people are kind and understanding people who are not trying to make their life any more difficult than it already is. They have been dealt a difficult situation since their transgenderism is not a choice for them. Let them do their business in the safest way for them.

I can't remember the last time I have heard of a rapist attack someone in a public bathroom. Does a rapist really want to attack someone in the back of Walmart so they have to make it through the store without getting aprehended? I think not. If they are looking for a victim, they would stock her/him and bring them elsewhere to do they deed and this law doesn't make this easier or harder.

Conservatives by definition (check Websters and while you are at it check liberals to see how the right is abusing the term) are against any change. In this case, they are against change which is supported by a groing body of science. Of course, the last eight years has seen official Washington deny that science has any place in decision making.