Anti-human rights ad full of lies, distortions and ludicrous propositions

Three days before the upcoming election, Keep Fairmont Safe (KFS) ran a very long ad in today's local newspaper opposing Fairmont’s proposed new human rights ordinance, which will be on the ballot for a vote by city residents.

KFS is a "local" organization spawned by the Family Policy Council of West Virginia, an openly anti-gay hate group that travels around the state fighting against basic human rights for all people. If you don't believe me, google their web site or find them on Facebook.

Back to the newspaper ad. There are so many things wrong it would take too much space to recount them all, but here are just a few:

1. While declaring that KFS is “not opposed to human rights,” the ad states that sexual orientation and gender identity should not be considered protected classes as the ordinance states because they are “variable” conditions, unlike other classes such as race, religion, gender and national origin which are “fixed.”

Two things are wrong here: In no universe is religion a “fixed” condition. No one has ever come out of the womb a Presbyterian or a Methodist or even a Christian, and certainly no child has ever been born an angry, anti-gay, far right religious extremist. Those are learned or adaptive behaviors and therefore must also be considered “variable.” So if gays and transgenders must be excluded as "variable" classes, maybe religion should be excluded as well. I mean, "variable" is "variable," right?

Also, there is nothing more anti-gay than the idea that homosexuality and human biology are lifestyle choices. This notion denies the science and all other evidence to the contrary. If you’re anti-gay you are by definition opposed to human rights for everyone, so that claim is also a lie.

2. Next, KFS makes a claim that is so ludicrous as to be laughable if it weren’t so desperate and so sad. The ad claims that transgenders will identify as a man on Monday and a woman on Tuesday to get lower premiums on their car insurance. I’m not making that up. It really says that. I’m not sure words have been invented yet to adequately describe how ridiculous that comment is.

Now I know what KFS would say: "This happened one time in Alberta, Canada." Yes, that's true (I used the google, too), but one con man in Canada trying to cheat an insurance company does not translate into a worldwide threat. Besides, I'm pretty sure you can conjure up any kind of bizarre or aberrant behavior and use the internet to find at least one time when it happened somewhere in the world, and then turn that into an anti-gay talking point.

There are more than 6 billion people on earth and a lot of them are badly screwed up, but implying that any or all of them involve only gay and transgender people is bigotry of the highest order, and suggesting that such perversions were made possible because someone passed an ordinance granting human rights is too stupid to even merit a comment.

Finally, suggesting for one second that these behaviors will start to occur in Fairmont soon after the election is an unrealistic scare tactic at best and a blatant lie at worst. I don't really care that one guy in Canada tried to lie his way into cheap car insurance. Give me the names of insurance agencies in Fairmont where this has become a problem, and then we can talk.

3. Third, KFS says Fairmont doesn’t need a human rights ordinance to force its citizens to use “kindergarten manners” and be "nice and kind" to its fellow man. Really? Maybe the ad should have said “be nice and kind to our straight, white, Conservative Christian fellow man” because nothing in KFS’s literature or tactics or their internet comments suggests the organization is nice and kind to everyone or even that its members actually do have kindergarten manners.

4. And finally, the city is criticized for removing the words “public accommodations” from its new ordinance. Breaking news: KFS likes to call this ordinance a "bathroom bill" even though it never mentions public accommodations in any way. They want followers to think the ordinance will allow transgender men to legally enter women's restrooms and flash or fondle little girls.

This ignores the fact that no ordinance legalizes criminal behavior, and that with or without an ordinance, any man – including those who are not gay or transgender – could dress up like a woman and walk into a restroom anywhere and any time to commit an illegal act, and no handout or web site or newspaper ad from KFS is going to stop them if that’s what they’re determined to do. This is a straw man argument employed to frighten uninformed citizens and camouflage an over-arching anti-gay agenda that drives KFS and its backers.  

There is more, but you get the idea.

We’re going to vote in a couple of days and I hope that the people of Fairmont will vote in favor of the human rights ordinance and against the hatred and bigotry espoused by Keep Fairmont Safe, an organization that should change its name to Keep Fairmonters Segregated, because that’s what its followers truly believe. Everyone should go vote "yes" on the ordinance so that bigotry doesn't win.