Posted by On twitter yesterday, Kyle Pratt of Ruminations Blog posted this:
‘Bathroom bill’ foes rally in Mass.: http://digg.com/d1tt6Z?t More problems with “transgender” guys and restrooms.
Of which I responded with:
Can you name one person that’s been a victim of a sex crime by transgender person in a bathroom? Lying to scare people is pathetic.
he responded by saying:
I don’t think I scared anyone, it wasn’t a lie–it is a warning. There ‘s no reason a man should go into a women’s room.
While I’m a very liberal Democrat, I can respect people who hold different/opposing views than mine. What I cannot respect is dishonesty. The article he pointed to says:
Activists want to add transgender to the Bay State’s existing “hate crimes” bill. Evelyn Reilly, director of public policy for the Massachusetts Family Institute, tells OneNewsNow that lawmakers who support the measure are bowing to a fraction of the population — and in that process, are endangering women and children.
Zoe Brain over at A.E. Brain frames it succinctly:
It’s legal to persecute the transgendered in 37 states, but in 13 it isn’t. Yet in those 13 states, there have never been these mythical “bathroom issues”. Not once. Oh, perverts have used womens facilities as places to attack, rarely, but they’ve never tried to use the human rights legislation, either mentioning “sex” or “gender identity” as a defence. Not once in 33 years.I guess though that Lincoln was right: you really *can* fool some of the people all of the time. Enough of them, anyway.
If there really *was* a danger – then we’d admit it, and try to find a solution to work around it. We have children too. And we’d be in just as much danger.
But you can’t work around something that doesn’t exist. All you can do is show that it’s a myth, and a deliberate lie.
That’s what these so called “conservative Christians” have to revert to, to scare people about a nonexistent problem… a very deliberate, very focused lie. Meanwhile there are transgender people who are sexually and physically assaulted in restrooms of their birth gender that happen every day. It’s not theoretical, it’s a reality. It happens and these so called “Christians” care more about their dishonest agenda than transgender people’s safety? That doesn’t seem very Christ like.
Not only do they lie, but they’re completely ignoring the very real danger of assault that trans women face when forced to use the men’s room, of which there are DOZENS of documented cases. That’s the part of their behavior that I find most disgusting.
And his reply on twitter?
There’s nothing factual to disagree with. Their argument is based upon lies, so this isn’t a miscommunication or propaganda, it’s just a flat out lie.
You’re right, it’s got nothing to do with facts, or even with protecting woman. Some segments of our society seem to delight in spinning lies to put down those who are different from them. Whether black, or Jewish, or gay, or transgendered. It’s always some evil scheme that ‘the others’ are cooking up.
I blame a large part of the problem with the media in Massachusetts who have allowed and become complicit in promoting the meme by referring to the legislation as “The Bathroom Bill.” Their exploitation of a quick, easy and response generating headline with no consideration of the effect of their bias has allowed the right wing to frame the debate against us.
I try to call them on it as much as I do the attacks from the right wingers themselves.