The New Anti-LGBT Talking Point: Sharing a Restroom with "a Transgender"

We've known for a while that when it comes to anti-LGBT activists and their advertising, no twisted depiction of reality is too much.  In the lead up to California's vote on Prop 8, we saw false advertising suggesting that religious leaders would be forced to conduct same-sex marriages (untrue); that same-sex marriage threatens children (untrue); that children would be forced to learn about same-sex marriage in school (really untrue); and that kindergartners would be taught sex ed (so untrue it's pathetic).  I'm half shocked we didn't see an advertisement blaming same-sex marriage for the Iraq War.

The untruthiness continues, with anti-LGBT forces working hard to repeal an LGBT anti-discrimination law in Gainesville, Florida. The vote is scheduled for March 24 (making it - we think - the first LGBT-related ballot measure up for a vote in 2009), and the tenor of the campaign is heating up.  So just why are anti-LGBT activists trying to repeal this law, which protects LGBT citizens from unjust discrimination?

Because, as they put it, the law would mean that men in scruffy beards would be able to share a public bathroom with your 8-year-old daughter.  And we're not making that up.  Here's the proof about the ad:

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...

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."...

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.

We also know, apparently, that when angry activists want to repeal any and everything pro-LGBT, they'll resort to the worst form of negative campaigning and lies.  The Gainesville anti-discrimination ordinance simply protects people from being fired from their job, denied housing or access to public accommodations because of their sexual orientation.  Since it was enacted, the police have reported no incidents in public restrooms stemming from the law.  And that's because the law poses no threat to anyone in public restrooms.

Equality is Gainesville's Business, as well as a host of other LGBT organizations including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Pride Community Center of North Central Florida, Equality Florida and the newly-formed Organizations United Together (OUT) are working to save the LGBT protections in Gainesville.   Their leaders point out that 108 cities across the U.S. have the same protections, and that 153 of the Fortune 500 companies have the same protections.  In other words, it's not only perfectly safe and normal to have LGBT anti-discrimination ordinances, it's also the just thing for a city or business to do in order to foster equality.  These protections shouldn't be repealed, let alone be repealed because of a misleading talking point about public restrooms.

And if there's one other reason for Gainesville voters to vote no on March 24, it's this: not only will the ballot measure repeal protections for transgender individuals, it will also repeal all anti-discrimination protections for gay, lesbian and bisexual citizens, too.

One last note - the public restroom argument is certainly not native to Gainesville.  Anti-LGBT organizers in Kalamazoo, Michigan used the same argument to secure petition signatures in their city, in an effort to repeal a December 2008 anti-discrimination ordinance protecting LGBT citizens.