News flash: Governor Martin O'Malley has just signed legislation that makes Maryland one of a handful of states to extend its anti-discrimination laws to protect transgender people.
As happy as I am to see this, I am also dismayed at a depressingly familiar spectacle that accompanies it: Opponents are launching a petition to put the law up for a referendum in this November's election. I'm not so upset that they're trying to repeal the law: That, at least can be defeated relatively easily, especially in a state like Maryland, home to many LGBT lobbyists and others who work in the nation's capital. What makes me say, "Oh, this shit again!" is that, once again, opponents are using the bathroom argument.
I mean, really: What man will dress up in women's clothes just so he can go into a women's restroom and bother the people using it. If a man really wants to molest, harass or attack women, he will do so by other means and in other places. And I have yet to hear of a male-to-female transgender who actually did something she shouldn't have been doing in women's facilities.
I haven't spent a lot of time in Maryland. But from my brief stops and stays there, I get the impression that there are enough intelligent people in the Old Line State to shoot down such a ridiculous argument. I take that back: It shouldn't even be dignified by calling it an argument.
Anyway, kudos to Governor O'Malley. Too bad that this year marks the end of his second term. Because of term limits, he can't run again in November.
As happy as I am to see this, I am also dismayed at a depressingly familiar spectacle that accompanies it: Opponents are launching a petition to put the law up for a referendum in this November's election. I'm not so upset that they're trying to repeal the law: That, at least can be defeated relatively easily, especially in a state like Maryland, home to many LGBT lobbyists and others who work in the nation's capital. What makes me say, "Oh, this shit again!" is that, once again, opponents are using the bathroom argument.
I mean, really: What man will dress up in women's clothes just so he can go into a women's restroom and bother the people using it. If a man really wants to molest, harass or attack women, he will do so by other means and in other places. And I have yet to hear of a male-to-female transgender who actually did something she shouldn't have been doing in women's facilities.
I haven't spent a lot of time in Maryland. But from my brief stops and stays there, I get the impression that there are enough intelligent people in the Old Line State to shoot down such a ridiculous argument. I take that back: It shouldn't even be dignified by calling it an argument.
Anyway, kudos to Governor O'Malley. Too bad that this year marks the end of his second term. Because of term limits, he can't run again in November.
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