- Montgomery Country, MD Council Set To Pass Law
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- To Allow Male Use Of Female Restrooms
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- Yes, it's true. Males who self-identify themselves
as females will have open access to women's and girls' public restrooms,
locker rooms and showers if the Montgomery County Council doesn't hear
from you BEFORE Nov. 13th
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- "That's nuts," you say. Not to the Montgomery
County, Maryland Council, which is poised to pass the Non-discrimination
Gender Identity Bill (Bill 23-07) into law on November 13, 2007. The bill
seeks to augment Maryland's anti-discrimination law which currently does
not include "transgender" as a protected class.
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- While Bill 23-07 prohibits discrimination in housing
and employment against those with gender identity problems, it also adds
public accommodations, including restrooms, shower rooms, locker rooms
and dressing rooms in schools, health clubs, public swimming pools, clothing
stores and other such public areas. This new entitlement describes "gender
identity [as meaning] an individual's actual or perceived gender.."
This change would permit a biological male, who only has expressed a
female self- image, to invade the most private facilities used by girls
and women.
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- For example, the bill would allow a male teacher or male
student to use school restrooms if he thinks he is female. Same with McDonald's,
Chucky Cheese, etc. Some would call Bill 23-07 an invitation to voyeurism
or worse. Women's privacy rights are most at risk because the overwhelming
number of "gender benders" are male.
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- The Montgomery County Council has voiced callousness
and arrogance to the concerns of parents who object. Council member George
Leventhal emailed one such mother of a 10-year-old with this opinion:
"I cannot absolutely put to rest your concern that girls might find
themselves in a locker room or dressing room in the presence of a person
who expresses or asserts herself as a woman but who still has male genitals,
but based on my own sense of the prevalence of that condition in the population,
I think the likelihood of that occurring is remote."
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- Council member Leventhal's opinion that we should not
worry if a child or woman comes face to face with a nude male stranger
(who merely has expressed he feels he is a woman) seems nothing short of
condescending. Does he not see that the door is open beyond embarrassment
to sexual assault? By allowing any male in a woman's bathroom because
anyone questioning his presence can be labeled as a discriminator against
cross-dressers, opens up serious safety issues.
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- The Council is trying to keep this cross-dressing bill
out of the public eye. Dr. Ruth Jacobs of CRC, an infectious disease specialist,
testified against the bill at the Council's October 2 meeting. She informed
the Council that the American Psychiatric Association recognizes Gender
Identity Disorder as a mental illness. A former transgender from Parents
and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) also testified at the hearing
against the bill. Grace Harley lived as a man for over 10 years before
seeking help to overcome her gender identity disorder and now lives as
the female she was born to be. Transgenderism is a mental illness treatable
by therapy. The correct response to requests by cross-dressers for access
to women's public facilities is full access to mental health services.
Otherwise, we are feeding into their mental illness and supporting their
disordered behavior.
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- Just who is the Council trying to protect? Certainly
not the modesty or safety of its female population, including our daughters
and teens. The Council has failed to add language to Bill 23-07 explicitly
stating that it does not entitle male cross-dressers, transvestites, or
transgenders entry into women's shower rooms, bathrooms, dressing rooms
at schools or stores, health clubs, public swimming pools, and any other
public place.
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- YOU CAN STOP THIS!
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- THE VOTE ON THIS BILL IS NOVEMBER 13.
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- ASK THE COUNCIL TO VOTE AGAINST THE BILL.
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- CALL AND E-MAIL THE COUNTY COUNCIL NOW:
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- All emails sent to President Marilyn J. Praisner at
- councilmember.praisner@montgomerycountymd.gov are supposed
- to be transmitted to the Council. Her phone number is
240-777-7968.
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- To find your representative:
- http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/csltmpl.asp
- ?url=/content/council/contact.asp#members (scroll
down)
- To phone your rep call 240-777-7900.
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- Call and email Ike Leggett, County Executive 240-777-2500
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- ocemail@montgomerycountymd.gov as well and ask him to
veto Bill 23-07 if it
- is passed by the County Council.
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- Write and call the media
- gmacdonald@gazette.net,
- letters@washingtontimes.com,
- letters@washpost.com
-
-
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- Join the Protest against Bill 23-07 Non-discrimination-Gender
Identity!!!
- On Saturday, November 3, from 10 AM to 12 Noon at the
Germantown Indoor Swim Center. Citizens for Responsible Curriculum chose
that location because women's gym locker rooms should be "safe"
-- no men in the women's dressing rooms and locker rooms. Germantown
Indoor Swim Center is located within the South Germantown Recreational
Park, 18000 Central Park Circle, Boyds, Maryland 2084, Phone 240-777- 6830
or call CRC at 301-335-6042.
-
-
-
- Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays
- PFOX
- Box 561, Fort Belvoir VA 22060
- 703-360-2225
- pfox@pfox.org
- www.pfox.org
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