Right Goes to the John Trying to Stop Tampa Trans Protections

The issue of trans access to gender identity-appropriate restrooms has been muddied in Tampa, Florida, by religious and anti-gay groups seeking to play up fears of sexual predation taking place in women's lavatories under the guise of trans protections.

Anti-gay religious Web site WorldNetDaily reported in a Nov. 18 article that Tampa's city council had passed a measure to include trans citizens under an existing anti-discrimination ordinance. Fears about sexual predators exploiting the measure were exploited by anti-gay groups such as the American Family Association (AFA), which put out a statement recalling an incident involving a sex offender who had illegally been in a women's area of a fitness center.

"Tampa Police arrested Robert Johnson in February 2008 for hanging out in the locker room-restroom area at Lifestyle Fitness and watching women in an undressed state," the AFA statement said. "The City of Tampa's 'gender identity' ordinance could provide a legal defense to future cases like this if the accused claims that his gender is female."

"This ordinance will give lawful protection to cross-dressing males to patronize women's restrooms," warned a statement from another anti-gay group, the Florida Family Association. "And men dressed as women or women who perceive themselves as men can also use men's restrooms."

Charges of anti-Christian persecution quickly followed. "We're trying to mobilize people to stand in opposition to what is a bad law [that] discriminates against Christians and provides special privileges for people based on sexually aberrant behavior," claimed the president of the Community Issues Council, Terry Kemple.

"This is intended to address people who are dealing with gender identity," said Chip Fletcher, Tampa's city attorney. As such, the law applies to individuals who are transitioning to the other gender anatomically, so their bodies come into alignment with their personal perceptions of their own genders.

But the president of the anti-gay AFA, Tim Wildmon, gave the story a different spin, claiming that school children would be affected by the inclusion of trans individuals under the ordinance. "The gender identity ordinance also provides legal protection for transgenders to teach schoolchildren one day as a man and another day as a woman," asserted Wildmon in an email. "Unfortunately, the ordinance does not attempt to qualify who really is a transgender and who is not. That is left up to the individual to determine what his 'gender identity' is that day."

Kemple cast the issue as one in which religious political clout must be used in order to prevent the erosion of religious freedoms, reported a Nov. 17 article in the Tampa Tribune that was posted at Tampa Bay Online. "If the city council hears a loud voice from the church they'll think twice and we may actually defeat this proposal," declared Kemple. "If they don't hear from us be ready to lose a few more of the religious freedoms our country was established to protect."

The same article noted that the Tampa city council had approved the change unanimously on Nov. 5, joining 16 other Florida towns in offering trans protections. Across the country, over a dozen states and a number of large companies--well over three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies--have also acted to provide trans protections. Without protections in place for trans individuals, noted Nadine Smith, Equality Florida's executive director, trans citizens could face loss of employment, be denied housing, and find themselves ejected from restaurants and other public places. Smith called Tampa's inclusion of trans citizens under the city's anti-discrimination ordinance "long overdue," adding, "This is what big cities do to protect their citizens."

Anti-gay groups have employed what equality advocated dub "scare tactics" in other areas of the country as progress for trans protections has continued. In Colorado, as in Tampa, rhetoric around denying trans individuals protections centered on restroom usage. James Dobson, the head of the anti-gay organization Focus on the Family, which is headquartered in Boulder, issued a warning that predicted dire consequences. "Henceforth, every woman and little girl will have to fear that a predator, bisexual, cross-dresser or even a homosexual or heterosexual male might walk in and relieve himself in their presence," Dobson declared.

Responded Colorado State Senator Jennifer Veiga, "[Equality opponents] can point to absolutely no example that this happened in Colorado" or any of the 16 states where trans people are included in anti-discrimination protections.

A lack of precedent has not deterred opponents from carrying their fight against trans equality to the federal level. The Obama Administration is working with lawmakers to pass a trans-inclusive version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). The bill has strong bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate, according to a Nov. 6 article at Workforce Management. Senate supporter Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat and the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, vowed that an ENDA bill would be on President Obama's desk in 2010.

"The Obama administration believes that ENDA must be the next step in the unfinished business of America, which is civil rights," said Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Tom Perez of the trans-inclusive legislation.

One model already in use for accommodating trans workers is Nike's policy of allowing its employees to use the restrooms and locker rooms set aside for the genders with which they identify; special areas of those facilities are provided to grant additional privacy.