It should surprise no one that they are all anti-trans activists and right wing talking heads.
While attempting to prompt the responses he wanted from some GMU students about the recently signed California student rights bill, right wing activist and videographer Dan Joseph revealed “you mean like a guy who just wants to see some naked chicks going ‘oh, I’m transgendered and I need to go to the girls locker room?’ I mean, that’s what I would do.“
Thank you for that heads-up. Now we know who to keep an eye on, as we have warned before: Those who repeat the lie that respecting the human rights of trans people will result in creepy men invading women’s restrooms.
What was striking about Joseph’s video montage was how hard he had to work to get anything approaching the responses he was seeking. For the most part, the students said things like “Yeah, that might be a little weird at first,” and “people need to do what they need to do,” and “my parents probably wouldn’t like it.” It left me with the impression that they were all basically nice people without much information who wanted to be fair to everybody; this was the most negative footage Joseph had to work with?
Similar claims were made by Bill O’Reilly, who said “I would have done that as a senior in high school,” and Greg Gutfeld, who shared this: “As a devious teen growing up, I would tell girls that I’m a girl trapped in a boy’s body, just so I could sneak into the girls’ bathroom. In fact, I do that now at Fox News. … Gretchen Carlson threw me out of the bathroom just last week.”
Perpetrators of the “bathroom bill” fraud are now pretending that they would pretend to be transgender women in order to “see some naked chicks.” You might wonder why they would embarrass themselves personally by making this claim; why not illustrate their point with actual cases of boys claiming to be transgender in order to access girls’ facilities? I bet you know already – there aren’t any. No one ever has, and no one would, actually do this.
Which is exactly why people like Joseph, O’Reilly, and Gutfeld have to claim that they personally would be the ones who pretend to be transgender to sneak into women’s facilities.
There are no real world examples to support their horror story. They have to become the horror story in order to prove its credibility.
Although we’ve now been given very good reason to expect unlawful behavior from such people. While no one would pretend to be transgender for this purpose, apparently some would pretend to pretend to be transgender. It’s currently illegal for anyone to enter a restroom or locker room for the purpose of surveillance or sexual harassment, regardless of their gender or gender presentation, and that’s not going to change. So I would strongly recommend that they not do what they now want everyone to believe is “allowed.” It is not.
The purpose of these statements by anti-trans activists is consistent with the only known instance of a man actually pretending, or pretending to pretend, to be transgender, revealed to be a hoax with the sole purpose of “testing” a non-discrimination law. In that incident, a male activist from the Montgomery County “showerhead” group entered the women’s locker room at a health club (wearing a “blue ruffled skirt”) while another activist held a press conference in the lobby. The stunt was apparently supposed to be taken seriously, but when questioned the activists admitted that it “was meant to get some media attention.”
As Mara Keisling of NCTE said of the latest campaign, it’s “just sad and kind of sick.”
Just what do men like Bill O’Reilly imagine it is that women do in public bathrooms? Do they have fantasies that, instead of toilet bowls and paper towels, those places are equipped with stripper poles and mirror balls? I think anyone who believes the activities taking place in public restrooms would be entertaining to watch, under any circumstances, probably needs counseling.
You know, when Loudoun addressed this issue, some years ago, this exact prediction was made. We were warned of the slew of law suits that would arise from parents of young girls who had been subjected to the leering intrusions of faux trans-gendered men, as they swarmed The Ladies’ Room in the government center.
So far, the count of such law suits equals the count of reports that anything like that has ever happened: zero.
Did anyone other than Dave LaRock, Eugene Delgaudio and Lori Waters issue these warnings? As I recall, the few who raised it in comments and letters got pretty soundly spanked, although it was never really clear whether they were talking about actual trans people or “pretend” trans people. Good times.
This is supposed to be the cutting edge argument to get the base all hot and bothered, because attacking the boring gay and lesbian people isn’t getting the job done anymore. Problem is, they’ve been repeating it for years now and it only becomes more clear over time that it’s a non-issue. In one of the linked articles there’s a 2008 report from NGLTF showing 39% of the U.S. population living in a jurisdiction with trans-inclusive non-discrimination policies. The most recent report (2011) shows that population at 44%. I don’t know what it is now, but I know it’s higher.
Correction: There’s a report from 2012 that shows 45%.
This is a little bit off-topic but demonstrates the mental gymnastics of the anti-gay mentality. From the conservative Catholic blog at the National Catholic Register, 10 Quotes That Prove The Pope Is A Liberal
It’s always the same argument, isn’t it? And pointing out what this actually and plainly means – that they think the appropriate course is to support “discouraging homosexuality” by any means necessary, including violent malice in speech or in action – will be decried by their apologists as “bullying,” or “telling people what to think,” or “reimaging their words,” or some other disingenuous crap. Sorry, but there’s no way of dressing up the desire to hurt people and making it “winsome.”
Here’s a passage from a 1971 Newsweek article written to explain to readers where all these gay people suddenly came from and what it means:
Even in 1971 there was recognition that equality, dignity and safety was not going to create more “homosexuals.” The objective is and has always been to punish us, to create a hostile environment characterized by guilt and fear that makes the price for being honest and open too high. The objective is our invisibility and silence.
The whole trumped up bruhaha amazes me. In Europe they have unisex restrooms anyway. Some of them even have no stalls, for pity sake. Surely most people are tired of hearing this sky is falling over and over again.