Hate groups vilify trans people to reenergize their fight against LGBT rights

by Rob Howard
Associate Editor

The Bathroom Wars battle has become clearer in the past several months, with the defeat of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) at the polls last November. HERO originally was supported by a majority of Houstonians.

However, what Houston’s Mayor Annise Parker called “a campaign of fear-mongering and deliberate lies” turned the support into the defeat of the LGBT protection ordinance by 61 percent of the voters.

Although the fight against HERO turned into the first battle of the Bathroom Wars, it basically was a standard LGBTQ protection ordinance, similar to what has been passed in 200 or more US cities, and 20 states. The ordinance prohibited discrimination based on “an individual’s sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, familial status, marital status, military status, religion, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity, or pregnancy.”

Not a word about bathrooms or who uses them. Raising the specter of men pretending to be transgender women to gain access to women’s restrooms so they can assault women, the far-right diverted attention from LGBTQ protections, convinced voters it was a women and children safety issue, and won.

And anti-LGBTQ hate groups seized on the tactic to continue their fight against LGBTQ rights. The groups have railed against equal rights since their inception. Over time, they have lost their battles against acceptance of LGBTQ people, against the military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy, and most striking of all, against same-sex marriage equality.

And they were not happy with that. And so, they cooked up the bathroom issue to get themselves back on track to what they do best – hating LGBTQ people. Groups that only last year were fighting same-sex marriage have pivoted to the Bathroom Wars, and started working on legislatures to enact discriminatory laws that affect not just transgender people, but all LGBTQ people.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a major player in the fight against marriage equality, now proclaims at the top of their website, “It’s common sense: No men in the women’s restroom.” They now have an agenda against our rights, which includes ‘model’ laws, and model school transgender policies. If you look at their wording, you will see it echoed in the laws that have been proposed nationwide.

Liberty Counsel, which just last year spent their time defending county officials who resisted issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples, has pivoted to a banner on their website saying, “Learn the truth about ‘Transgender Bathrooms.’” Clicking on their ‘More Information’ link takes you to a 50-item list about men assaulting women in women’s bathrooms. Not one of the incidents cited involved a transgender person.

The National Organization for Marriage, which billed itself as the main organization fighting same-sex marriage (their lack of success was notable), now heads its website, “Stop this dangerous, radical bathroom policy for public schools.”

The Family Research Council (FRC), the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), and the American Family Association (AFA) are all considered anti-LGBT hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The FRC website shows a graphic of a bathroom sign, and bleats, “Obama has done it again. Help us stop him,” and the provides a link to sign their petition to House Speaker Paul Ryan, which rants about “Obama administration overreach in bullying parents and local school districts by threatening loss of federal funds.” It ends with a pledge that, “I, the undersigned, strongly urge you to take action to protect our children and stop the Obama administration’s radical overreach.”

The TVC proclaims a “Protect our kids campaign,” citing news items like “Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t march on Selma so that grown men and boys could march into girls changing rooms,” and a Breitbart post saying, “Trump, Others Need To Understand The Full Impact Of Gender Identity Movement.”

The AFA proclaims a “Boycott Target” pledge, which over 1,250,000 people have signed. Their call to action says, “Target has crossed the line by intentionally exposing women and girls to voyeurs and sexual predators with their restroom and dressing room policy.”

This entire, obviously coordinated, campaign is about trying to stop the progress of LGBTQ rights by vilifying transgender persons. Their main thrust in the Bathroom Wars has been debunked over and over again by police and public officials who offer LGBT protections. These officials say, in a mighty chorus, that there has not been any incident of a predator claiming to be a transgender person in order to gain entrance to women’s restrooms to assault women and girls in their cities and states.

Houston’s Mayor Parker perhaps summed it up best: “It is illegal today to go into a place of public accommodation for the intent of committing a crime,” she said. “It was illegal before, it’s going to be illegal after.”

Copyright 2016 The Gayly - 6/12/2016 @ 8:09 a.m. CDT