Press Release - November 12, 2007
Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Michelle Turner
michelle.turner@mcpscurriculum.org
(301) 335-6042

GENDER IDENTITY BILL STILL FAILS TO PROTECT WOMEN,
DESPITE COUNCIL’S PUBLIC ASSERTIONS

Montgomery County, MD – “Nothing’s changed,” is the assessment of Michelle Turner, spokeswoman for a grassroots organization protesting the Montgomery County Council’s proposed Gender Identity Bill.

The Montgomery County Council is deceiving its citizens about supposed changes to its Gender Identity Bill, Turner claims. She is a founder of Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, one of the several groups focusing public attention to the bill. CRC hopes to keep restrooms, showers, and locker rooms (including those in schools) reserved for members of the same biological sex. “This is a modesty, safety, and privacy issue especially for children,” she said.

Over the past few days, the Council – under pressure from the public after a 3-day radio ad campaign and media scrutiny -- has been trying to create the impression that the use of women’s and girls’ facilities by males who have female feelings has been exempted from the bill.

"The Council has convinced some that changes were made to deny access," she said, "However, the proposed legislation, which is posted on the Council's website, still includes "public accommodations" among major areas covered by the non-discrimination bill. Most public accommodations include bathroom facilities open to patrons."

It appears the Council only eliminated a minor amendment which would have explicitly allowed free and open access to public facilities to those who have "publicly and exclusively expressed or asserted" themselves members of their biological opposite sex. Public accommodations with bathroom and shower facilities are still included in the bill and there is no specific prohibition on their use by men who dress as women or viceversa. The revised bill’s text was posted on the county’s website Sunday, November 11^th.

The group plans to hold a public protest on Tuesday, the day the Council is expected to pass the bill.

“The purpose of the bill is to add ‘gender identity’ as a protected class to existing nondiscrimination laws,” according to Susan Jamison, a Poolesville attorney and mother, “and Section 27-11 of the County’s code requires that ‘any place of public accommodation in the County must not [discriminate regarding] use of any facility’. That means that once Bill 23-07 is passed into law, any facility open to the public is immediately open to cross-dressers and men who claim they are more female than male, yet are anatomically male. We’re not talking about people who have had sex change surgery.”

“We need specific language written into the bill excluding these very private areas in which women and girls should be able to feel safe and comfortable,” Jamison said. “Without an exemption for these areas, our concerns are still very much alive.”

As written, the bill would empower the Montgomery County Office of Human Rights to enforce such access.

Opponents of the bill also seek exemptions for religious organizations, churches and schools which would be forced to hire transgenders, even if contrary to their closely held faith beliefs; and educational institutions, where gender confusion would adversely affect children.