Sorry, But No….

I am livid. An angry man. I don’t get that way very often. Anyone who knows me can tell you that, but I have just learned something that makes me sick to my stomach, fear for my children and the kids that I work with, and overall just horrified.

I just learned about a bill that was put together by the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender community around five years ago entitled the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act or GENDA. The purpose of this bill was to legally prevent bias based on gender identity and expression in employment, housing, public accommodations, and access to credit. These are specific areas where the GLBT community has felt a particular need to make greater strides in the prevention of discrimination, especially on a legal basis. After the writing of the bill 5 years ago, this past June they were finally able to get it to pass through the NY State Assembly by a vote of 108-34. It is yet to be voted on by the State Senate.

I will be very up front with you, as I always am, that I do not believe that homosexuality is right. But I am not ever out to pick a fight with anyone about it. I have friends who are homosexual and bi-sexual and I love them just like I do all my other friends. They know where I stand on the issue and though they disagree with me they know I don’t look down on them or hate them. I love them as I do all my friends and they do as well.

But this bill has me upset to put it gently. Included in this bill is the phrase “Public Accommodations”. What they mean very specifically is “restrooms”. In the research I have been doing regarding this bill this was a very essential part of what they were trying to accomplish in passing this through the legislature.

Right now, thanks to a lawsuit filed a few years back by a transsexual man who identifies his gender as a woman after being thrown out of the ladies room in a NY City restaurant, it is now both against the law in NYC to prohibit a man from going into the ladies room (as they may identify themselves with that gender) or , for a security guard or store employee/business owner to ask a person to identify their gender before they are allowed use of a restroom.

The “Public Accommodations” clause in the GENDA bill is designed to do that very thing state wide. The goal is that regardless of whatever gender a person is born with, a person should be allowed to use the restroom that they feel they identify with – their “Gender Identity”.

The goal here is to give someone who identifies more closely with the opposite gender the same privileges as someone who actually is that gender. This is the equivalent to saying “if a person believes they are Brittney Spears on the inside, they should have the right to be let into her dressing room and to wear her clothes.” A person may be very sincere and very deeply rooted in their “gender identity” but all it takes is a quick look in their own pants to check their gender reality.

The problem has nothing to do with anyone being afraid of new ideas, or anyone being homophobic, denying equal human rights, prejudice, or anything of that nature. In the GLBT community’s pursuit to make the world conform to their ideals they are now suggesting that it is ok to give men an excuse to enter the women’s restroom without question.

They want to be able to offer the man who “Identifies as a woman” the right to go to the ladies room, because that’s how he/she feels most comfortable. There are a number of problems with this scenario.

First, and least of all, a man may enter the ladies bathroom to make him feel more comfortable, but has anybody considered the thoughts of the other occupants of the restroom? Are you sacrificing a room full of people for the comfort of one? Are you telling a group of women that may include small children “If you are all uncomfortable, get over it, we have all made this change so he can be more comfortable. Yes he is a 40 year old man with a beard, but he feels like a woman on the inside so he sit in the stall next to your 8 year old daughter.”

Second, and far far worse is how this law can be abused. I am not as concerned about the gay/transsexual man who goes into the Ladies room other than the extreme discomfort and concern he may provide to the other women in the room. After all, if he is attracted to other men, then he’s not in there with any kind of negative intentions, he’s not interested in any of the girls in the room, and could care less.

The reason this is so outrageous is because this bill is the dream of every pedophile, rapist, abuser, stalker, attacker out there! Right now we have laws that prevent sex offenders from living a certain distance from schools. If we enact this kind of law all we are saying is “You can’t walk down the sidewalk near the school”, but if a pedophile was to go into the bathroom claiming to “identify as a woman” he would be free to wait until the coast is clear when little Suzie walks in. No security guard can ask why he going in the bathroom they can’t question your “Gender Identity”. Then the pedophile takes an easy opportunity.

Have you ever met a teenage guy? Tons of teenage guys who find out that this is a loophole in the system will use this as an easy way into the girls room because they can’t be stopped at the door, or because they can simply claim a different “Gender identity”.

Are you beginning to get the idea? I know there is a large degree of discomfort for most women that comes with a man, even a transsexual, being in the bathroom. But far worse than that is the wide open opportunity it opens to creeps of every kind to do everything from sneek and peek, to touch assault, rape, and abuse. There has got to be some reality that strikes home here!

To those people who are having a hard time with gender issues, I’m sorry that this seems to be a struggle for you. But I don’t feel like your little bit of confusion or discomfort is worth putting my future children’s life and security at stake. I have worked with enough kids who have seen this kind of abuse that I’m not about to accept that you’re justified in putting more kids in danger because you can’t take 2 seconds to check your pants remember your gender reality and figure out which restroom is appropriate to go to.