Yay For The Press II: The Sentinel

I am so proud of how the press has handled the campaign to re-legalize discrimination against transgender people.

The Sentinel had a news story and a part of an editorial about this. Here's what editor Brian Karem said about it in his opinion piece:

... Speaking of reading, what is the chance we will actually take the chance to read a petition before we sign it?

Apparently the people at the Citizens for Responsible Government are counting on the fact that you won't because they've got more than 27,000 signatures (so they claim) to repeal a county ordinance that will - according to them - let transgender people as well as pedophiles and transvestites to enter whatever gender restroom they choose.

The only problem, of course, is that the legislation doesn't say anything like that.

Just read the legislation. It's in black and white.

When you bring this up to the good people of the CRG they will squint their eyes, rub their ears and say things like "Well the current law is vague."

No it isn't. The CRG and their pointy-head minions may have their collective hindquarters buried in the sand next to their faces, but the simple fact is that if you read the legislation there's no need for these people to be hassling voters trying to get a referendum on the November ballot.

I admire their pluck, being out there, but detest their questionable methods to promote their agenda.

Just read.

(Read it HERE) It was generous of him to "admire their pluck." I wouldn't go that far, I think they ought to find something constructive to do.

The Sentinel also carried a news story about this. And listen, this is really heartening. They report the news story accurately. I can't tell you how glad I am to see the professionalism of our local media. There is a lot of blood in the water here, staged hoaxes, allegations and excitement, and so far nobody has fallen for it.

I thought you had to pay to read The Sentinel but it appears that part of the paper is outside the paywall. Maybe it's just for a while. I found this story HERE

Several confrontations this weekend at area Giant grocery stores between petitioners and transgender individuals highlighted the building tension between Citizens for A Responsible Government and the transgender community over legislation passed in November and the petition to put it up for a referendum vote.

CRG says it collected more than the 25,000 certified signatures needed by Feb. 19 in order to get a question on the ballot this November about whether the county should repeal bill 23-07. Michelle Turner, the group's spokesperson, said the tally is 27,900 and rising.

Despite being refuted by County officials, CRG maintains that the bill opens public bathrooms and locker rooms to pedophiles and cross-dressing men. County council members, who passed the bill unanimously in November, and County Executive Isiah Leggett say the bill does no such thing.

"The amount of misinformation out there is troubling," Council President Mike Knapp said. "I even got into a dispute at a polling location on Tuesday. The reality is this bill did nothing to change the existing law that pertains to restrooms or locker rooms. They're (The CRG) getting permission to be places based on misinformation."

The misinformation Knapp referred to is a key disagreement in the debate. The bill contains no language relating to public restrooms or locker rooms, but the CRG says the bill doesn't specifically deny access to these places.

"The preexisting law never applied to public bathrooms and locker rooms," Knapp said. "It's still up to the person who runs the facility to decide who is allowed in what bathroom."

Dr. Dana Beyer, a Senior Policy Analyst to Councilmember Duchy Trachtenberg, and Marianne Arnow, both transgender individuals, met head-on with members of CRG at area grocery stores over the weekend where members of the group were making a final push for signatures to their petition.

Beyer said that she and a few other supporters went to grocery stores where CRG members were collecting signatures to educate people about what they were signing. "In all but one place we talked to the management of these grocery stores and the management had them removed," Beyer said.

The only store where the manager claimed the group had a right to be there was in Langley Park, Beyer said. "He was wrong, but we couldn't convince him of that," Beyer said.

This telling of the story focuses a little more on the action, the conflicts, okay, that's a pretty good angle for this story.

By the way, I was out there this weekend, too, and most places we went the people with the petitions were nice, we had some pleasant conversations with them. We didn't agree on the issues, but the only place I saw anger was at the Arliss Giant. Well, the lady at the Container Store wasn't very friendly and wouldn't talk to us. But like, we helped them carry their petitions and their table out to the car at the Fallsgrove Safeway, and Maryanne made good friends with them at several places. Mostly it was not confrontation, they wanted signatures and we wanted to give out information. Some people signed their petitions, some listened to us.

There's more. Go read.

Again, this controversy over the nondiscrimination bill has all kinds of opportunities for cheap journalism. I'm afraid I was not optimistic about the media's ability to resist the temptation of a sensational but meaningless story, and I have to say that so far the coverage has been really good.

I won't try to predict, but I do hope the rest of the media will live up to the standard set by The Gazette and The Sentinel. They've shown it is possible to write a good informative story, giving both sides of the issue and some exciting details, introducing some colorful characters, with vivid and engaging quotes ... the whole thing. There's a lot here, let's see our journalists give this a good professional working-over.