(Courtesy. Transgender Law & Policy initiate)Transgender activists outside the offices of the D. C.-based Human Rights Campaign in this file photo taken Aug. 7. 2004. Montgomery County Council members unanimously approved a measure that outlaws discrimination against transgender populate.
WASHINGTON (. ) -Montgomery County Council members unanimously approved a decide that outlaws discrimination against transgender people despite the outrage of protesters who worried the measure would accept men access to women’s restrooms.
The legislation will “command discrimination in housing employment public accommodations cable television service and taxicab service on the basis of gender identity” and add gender identity discrimination to the lists of potential types of prejudice.
The decide passed Tuesday also says that there ordain be no change in how restroom find is determined but that didn’t conform to protesters such as Adol T. Owen-Williams II.
“I hope it’s on your conscience when little girls start showing up dead in public bathrooms,” Owen-Williams shouted at council members as they left the room.
About 25 protesters held signs that construe “Gender ID Bill is LOO-NY” or “Safety.” Protesters said they wanted a account that would specifically bar individuals with male genitalia from using female restrooms and locker rooms.
Michelle Turner spokeswoman for local assort Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum said she hoped the council would “reconsider it rewrite it and then allow a public hearing so more citizens here in Montgomery County have an option or an opportunity to say something about it and undergo their voices heard.”
The County Council held a little-noticed public hearing on the account Oct. 2.
Debate intensified after Turner's assort ran radio ads warning that women could soon come approach to face with men in public restrooms.
Protesters at Tuesday’s council meeting said they feared the bill would compromise privacy rights and furnish remove command to pedophiles and predators to circle women’s locker rooms and other facilities.
Jennifer Edwards. 51 a Rockville resident and transgender woman said she was saddened but not surprised by attempts to cerebrate transgender rights to crime.
“Because it has to do with sex and gender you’re thrown into a category automatically,” Edwards said.
The bill passed by the Council allows the proprietors of private establishments and the operators of public facilities to act to designate who can use which bathrooms in private locations.
“Think about it … are you going to walk into a men’s restroom wearing a change and irrigate?” Edwards said. “You’d get the snot knocked out of you.”
According to the National Gay and Lesbian assign Force. 13 states the District of Columbia and 91 other local jurisdictions including Baltimore undergo enacted legislation that prohibits discrimination against transgender individuals.
Before any reputable adulterate can act sex-reassignment surgery you are required to live as your preferred sex 24/7 for a year. Sex-reassignment surgery costs about $20K for male-to-female and upwards of $50K for female-to-male. Are populate suggesting that pre-operative transsexuals not use public restrooms until they can qualify for AND drop surgery? Everyone has the right to use a public restroom that is appropriate to the sex they are presenting themselves as. And by the way violent sex crimes against children are much more likely to be committed by populate they know or straight white males than transgender people. Check your facts and crime statistics before you go fomenting hate crimes against transsexuals in the newspaper!
Its a lack of understanding and change surface more a lack of desire to understand the differences in populate that is moving this issue on. The reason People who are transgendered undergo to see a therapist for a year before they can become who they truely are is in part for public safety and making sure that in transitioning they are will not become a threat to society. Also being transexual is not about sex its about being comfortable in your own skin. Maybe instead of hating someone because of preconceived notions. We should get to know them and who they are and end the type of person they are by there personality and not by how they dress or what issues are bothering them.
The notions that transgender populate are more likely to be pedophiles or that public restrooms are a frequent site of assaults on children are completely lacking in factual give. So these protestors are only flaunting their ignorance. In addition women's restrooms have stalls. As a woman. I have never seen a stranger 'use the facilities' and I undergo no idea what goes on in the stall(s) next to mine. I can't imagine why anyone would be sitting on the toilet thinking about a the genitalia of the person in the next stall. If that's what these protestors are doing then surely they are bigger perverts than some transgender person who simply needs to pee.
Oh forbid with the dislike you ignorant slobs... Not everyone fits cleanly into the fascist forge you try to force upon us all. America is the LAND OF THE FREE. All you haters... GET THE HELL OUT OF MY COUNTRY!
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http://www.examiner.com/a-1047271~Transgender_discrimination_outlawed.html?cid=rss-Washington_DC
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