CRW Gathering Signatures For Important Religious Mission

You know the Citizens for a Responsible Whatever are trying to get 25,000 12,500 signatures on petitions to support a referendum to allow discrimination on the basis of gender identity in Montgomery County. They're working through the churches, saying that people with "deep religious beliefs" need to be able to discriminate against transgender people. (I'm still waiting to see some chapter-and-verse on that one -- exactly where in the Bible does it say anything at all about people fitting gender stereotypes?)

OK, I was a little bored, I started going through their materials. See, their big lie is that if you can't discriminate against transgender people, perverted men are going to go into ladies rooms and expose themselves and also look at the ladies there. Nothing will stop them, unless the people of the county quickly act to restore the right to discriminate. They have predicted that there will be rapes and murders galore all over the county if we allow transgender people to do the things the rest of us do, like catch taxis and eat in restaurants.

As support for this, the CRW web page links to a document called "Division 1. Discrimination In Public Accommodations," which is apparently taken from the Montgomery County code.

The big deal, according to them, is that the nondiscrimination law addresses "public accommodations." You might want to look at this. Public accommodations are defined, in this document, as:

... every public accommodation of any kind in the County whose facilities, accommodations, services, commodities, or use are offered
to or enjoyed by the general public either with or without charge, such as:

(1) restaurants, soda fountains, and other eating or drinking places, and all places where food is sold for consumption either on or off the premises;
(2) inns, hotels, and motels, whether serving temporary or permanent patrons;
(3) retail stores and service establishments;
(4) hospitals and clinics;
(5) motion picture, stage, and other theaters and music, concert, or meeting halls;
(6) circuses, exhibitions, skating rinks, sports arenas and fields, amusement or recreation parks, picnic grounds, fairs, bowling alleys, golf courses,
gymnasiums, shooting galleries, billiard and pool rooms, and swimming pools;
(7) public conveyances, such as automobiles, buses, taxicabs, trolleys, trains, limousines, boats, airplanes, and bicycles;
(8) utilities, such as water and sewer service, electricity, telephone, and cable television;
(9) streets, roads, sidewalks, other public rights-of-way, parking lots or garages, marinas, airports, and hangars; and
(10) places of public assembly and entertainment of every kind.

Did you see ladies rooms in that list?

I didn't either.

I know the word "accommodations" is sometimes used to mean bathrooms, but that isn't really what it means, that's a colloquial usage but that is clearly not what this law is about. The list gives you a clue.

In fact, the CRW has highlighted this sentence a few lines later in the document:

(c) This division does not apply to accommodations that are distinctly private or personal.

I would say restrooms are "distinctly private and personal," wouldn't you? It looks to me like this law specifically excludes protection for perverted men leering at and frightening innocent and modest ladies in the ladies room.

I understand that they want to stir up some excitement, but ... don't they ever get embarrassed?

Oh, by the way, there is an interesting alliance shaping up in the county, it looks like. Today (Friday), the CRW is sponsoring "signature gathering opportunities" at the ICM (Islamic Center of Maryland) Mosque in Gaithersburg and the Muslim Community Center on New Hampshier [sic] Ave, according to their recent newsletter.

It is fascinating to see the various faiths coming together for the important religious goal of promoting discrimination against transgender citizens. All the despair in the world, the violence, the loneliness, starvation, genocide, tyranny -- and this is what motivates them.