The Fairmont (W.Va.) City Council voted on September 12 to “repeal
and replace” its Human Rights Commission ordinance. The council abolished the city’s
old rule and created a new one that protects individuals from discrimination based
on sexual orientation and gender identity, adding these two groups to those
already protected based on race, religion, color, national origin, handicap…you
know the drill.
They took this action even though a large crowd of disenchanted,
misinformed or otherwise bigoted protesters showed up to oppose the ordinance.
Now there are eight separate petition drives under way to either revisit the Human
Rights ordinance or to “recall and replace” the seven council members who voted
in favor of it.
According to the Times
West Virginian newspaper, a group called Keep Fairmont Safe is behind the
petition drives. It describes itself as “a committee of concerned citizens
working to repeal an ordinance that forces some businesses to allow males
access to women’s spaces.” Facebook posts say that the ordinance “will allow
men into women’s bathrooms” and is “a dangerous ordinance” that will make the
community “less safe.”
Really?
If any of that were true, then this group should be able to
answer two basic questions. Failure to answer these questions with a
reasonable, rational response should disqualify their arguments in total and
they should be asked – respectfully – to please go away. The two questions are:
(1) How many times have you shared a public rest room with a
transgender person? (If you answered “I
don’t know” then you have lost the argument and must leave the room.)
(2) Ordinance or no ordinance, what is stopping perverted men
from dressing up like women and entering women’s spaces right now? (If
you answered that “nothing is stopping them” then you have lost the argument
and you must go away. Do not pass GO and do not collect $200.)
Do you see why these arguments don’t make any sense?
To the first point, I’m willing to bet that every individual
who has ever been to a concert, an airport, a mega-church, a sporting event, a theater
or even a crowded restaurant has, at one time or another, shared a rest room
with a transgender person…and didn’t even know it. So where was the harm?
Second, I could dress up this afternoon in some of my wife’s
clothing and walk into the women’s locker room at the HealthPlex or the swimming pool at Fairmont State University or a rest room at [insert name of business here] and try to sneak a
peek at women without their clothes. Who’s going to stop me? Of course, I’d
probably want to shave off my goatee first, but otherwise I’ve got fairly long
hair and my legs aren’t too bad. I think I could pull it off.
My wife informs me that this has never, ever happened to her and
she’s, well, of a certain age. I can pretty much guarantee that it’s never
happened to most if not all of the women who are out campaigning to legalize
discrimination in Fairmont.
As I wrote in an earlier essay, transgender people have
always existed, or should I say “co-existed,” with the rest of us who started and
finished our lives in the same gender. This is not a new phenomenon that
started with Bruce Jenner. They have always had access to public rest rooms and
civilization did not come crashing down.
If I were to ask one more question, it would be this: “How
many times have you (or your children) been molested by someone in a public
toilet?” The idea that someone wants to molest your children in a public rest room
with other people around just doesn’t make sense. I’d be more concerned about
my child walking home from school alone, or playing in a playground where
adults can watch, or even inside your own home with a babysitter…or your weird
uncle Bud.
* * *
For the record, the ordinance as revised now states:
“It is the public policy of the city to safeguard the right
and opportunity of all persons to be free from all forms of discrimination,
whether as a result of race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, sex,
age, sexual orientation, gender identity, blindness or handicap, and to provide
for an inclusive community for all residents, businesses and visitors. The
denial of these rights (to those groups) is contrary to the principles of
freedom and equality of opportunity and is destructive to a free and democratic
society.”
I don’t know why anyone would knowingly choose a side that
opposes freedom and equality.
Oh, wait. Yes I do.
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