Group Launches Ad Against Anti-Discrimination Ordinance
Posted by Rob | Filed under Government
In response to a revision passed in Gainesville, Florida of a city council anti-discrimination ordinance which, among other things, allows transgendered people to use whichever bathroom they feel most comfortable using, a group named Citizens for Good Public Policy released a television ad which can either be viewed as equating transgendered people to child predators or ignoring the existence and/or needs of transgendered individuals. The ad depicts a young girl around six years of age entering a women’s bathroom in a park, and then a man in his late twenties, wearing a baseball cap and acting suspicious, doing the same. The ad then states that the city council made the depicted situation legal and asks the audience if this is what they want for Gainesville.
The AP reports:
Those who support the transgender protections say their opponents are really unleashing a broader attack on the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender individuals in general. The city commission approved the restroom provision by a 4-3 vote a year ago. Before the ink could dry, Bible-quoting opponents angrily began working for its repeal. “You are trying to operate in a realm you do not have the authority to operate in,” one pastor, George Brantley, told the commissioners. The debate is expected to become noisier as the ballot nears with opponents resorting to more TV ads and campaigns pegged to such slogans as “Keep Men out of Women’s Restrooms and vice versa.” [...] Since the ordinance took effect, police have reported no problems in public restrooms stemming from the law. (Ron Word, Associated Press)
It seems that Citizens for Good Public Policy is wasting its resources on the wrong things. They should be focusing on curbing predators’ attacks in their community if they are so concerned, instead of trying to take protections away from not only transgendered people, but possibly all gay, lesbian, and bisexual people, who are also protected by the ordinance. Regardless of whether this ordinance exists or not, predators will continue to exist. The ordinance offers no method to allow people who cannot legitimately prove they are transgendered to use an opposite-sex restroom.
Click here to see the ad.
Click here to see the ordinance and its revisions in full.
Tags: ad, discrimination, Gainesville, law, ordinance, television, transgender
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January 14th, 2009 |
