The Boogieman Cometh

Where there is a bill for gender identity or expression you can bet your last dollar that the right wing conservatives will bring up bathroom and fear. This time it was in Fond du Lac Wisconsin,

'Scare tactic' prompts withdrawal of gender identity proposal
FDL Reporter
Written by Laurie Ritger
Nov. 12, 2013

An addition to Fond du Lac’s housing ordinance intended to protect transgender people apparently raised concerns in the community about sexual predators.

The proposed ordinance amendment has been withdrawn from Wednesday’s City Council agenda by Councilman Dan Manning.

“Based on the response we’ve gotten from the community, (it appears) there is a profound lack of understanding of what the ordinance will do,” he said. “I’m withdrawing it at this time so we can take an opportunity to do outreach with the community.”

They received over a hundred emails and calls against the bill because of “sexual predators” in the bathroom. Now folks this bill is about housing, not public accommodations, but the fear moguls went into overdrive. Meanwhile there is at least one sane person in Fond du Lac, in an opinion piece by Patricia Reese who wrote,

'Scare tactics' put FDL in a bad light
FDL Repoerter

Having taken the time to read the ordinance and state statute involved in the current local debate about transgender discrimination, I am appalled at the scare tactics that some people, most notably an extreme political action group, are using to convince people to oppose the ordinance.

They have distributed hate literature claiming that not being allowed to deny housing and business to transgender people puts the safety of women and children at risk. They go on to spread lies about bathroom use and church membership being covered by this ordinance in their efforts to create a groundswell of fear about extending the current discrimination ordinance to transgender people.

Most people are busy and don’t have the time to do their own research so they simply believe the words of a “Christian” group. That group is using the same tactics that successfully delayed the de-segregation of this country and which is still being used to deny equality to gays.

These so called “Christian” organization feel that it is all right to bear “false witness” and create fear against people. We see it in the effort to repeal AB1266 in California. The Salt and Light Ministry claimed that “a transgender boy [meaning a trans-girl] harassed her and peeked at girls over the stalls.” However, the school district’s Office of Communications said that they never received any complaint about harassment.

I sometimes wonder if the violence we saw against the Hercules High School trans-student last week had something to do with all the hate these so called “Christian” groups are spreading out in California. Did it embolden the students to verbally attack the trans-student?