on
Okay. Maybe the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) doesn’t think that they’re admitted their charge of “harassment” is fake, but I’ll let you be the judge.
The PJI is a right-wing activist organization and huge supporter of the ex-gay movement as well as the debunked practice of conversion therapy. Recently, the PJI stirred up the right-wing word by claiming that a kid in Colorado was helped by the public school system to harass cisgender girls in the restrooms. Right wing media outlets jumped at the story without conducting any fact checking, prompting members of the right wing community to call for the death of the trans kid.
Since the right wing refused to do it, I did some fact checking and learned from the school superintendent that their investigation found that there was no attack or harassment. Furthermore, it turns out that apparently all of this was caused by one parent who felt that trans people should be segregated away from the cisgender population:
Since this came to light media outlets have deleted PJI’s story and apologized to the trans student.
Today, PJI issued a statement to the TransAdvocate via their apparent mouthpiece, a TERF activist. While the statement still offered no evidence to support the claim that this trans kid is a predator, they finally revealed the nature of the supposed “harassment” endured by the cisgender school kids.
In a statement delivered to the TransAdvocate by attorney Cathy Brennan, the PJI claims that a trans person in the restroom is “inherently intimidating and harassing.” Brennan, vocal critic of trans equality measures, became somewhat infamous after she outed a trans teen to his parents and school, and recently attempted to intervene in the medical care of a transgender person.
After days of sidestepping any explicit statements about the exact nature of the supposed “harassment,” PJI now asserts that the mere presence of a trans person constitutes harassment and intimidation to cisgender people.
The PJI requested that journalists cease pulling their stories, suggesting that media outlets are doing so simply because LGBT activists are bullying them into “silence.”
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Cristan Williams is a trans historian and pioneer in addressing the practical needs of underserved communities. She started the first trans homeless shelter in Texas and co-founded the first federally funded housing-first homeless program, pioneered affordable health care for trans people in the Houston area, won the right for trans people to change their gender on Texas ID prior to surgery, started numerous trans social service programs and founded the Transgender Center as well as the Transgender Archives. She has published short stories, academic chapters and papers, and numerous articles for both print and digital magazines. She received numerous awards for her advocacy and has presented at universities throughout the nation, served on several governmental committees and CBO boards, is the Editor of the TransAdvocate, and is a founding board member of the Transgender Foundation of America and the Bee Busy Wellness Center.
