Press Release - November 1, 2007
Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

CITIZEN GROUP SEES MONTGOMERY COUNTY COUNCIL TRANSGENDER BILL ASSAULT ON GIRLS’/WOMENS RIGHT TO PRIVACY IN RESTROOMS, SHOWERS

Montgomery County, MD – Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, a non-profit grass roots organization of Montgomery County parents and citizens, has come out in opposition to a new bill proposed by the Montgomery County Council which would expand the state’s existing non-discrimination laws by adding ‘gender identity’, thereby creating a protected class for transgenders. A vote on the bill is expected to take place on November 13.

Bill 23-07 would prohibit discrimination in the areas of employment and housing, public accommodation, cable TV service, and taxicab service. Since the Council defines gender identity as “an individual’s actual or perceived gender…,” CRC claims biologic males, for example, who see themselves as females, would obtain the right to use facilities now designated for girls or women. CRC is concerned about opening the doors of school restrooms, showers, and locker rooms to transgenders, a catchall term encompassing heterosexual cross-dressers, homosexual transvestites, and transsexuals. Health clubs, swimming pools, and store dressing rooms would also be affected.

Activists have long derided using genitalia to define one’s sex. Instead, they believe each person has a right to define his own gender, regardless of external characteristics or chromosomal makeup.

“Montgomery County Public Schools is already telling a story in the 10th grade Health curriculum of a teenage boy who decides he is really a girl and changes his name to 'Portia'. If the County Council passes Bill 23-07, ‘Portia’ would become realty in our schools and the law would legalize his use of our daughters' locker rooms", according to Michelle Turner, CRC spokesperson.

Those who oppose the bill have been told that to challenge a male’s entry into a female area could be considered “harassment.” If the bill passes, parents and girls frightened or Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum www.mcpscurriculum.com offended by a male’s entry into a female area have no recourse under the law to safeguard their privacy rights.

When the mother of a 10-year-old girl who swims at the Germantown Indoor Pool, where she uses a common changing room with women, asked a Council member if under this law her daughter could be changing right next to a person with male genitals, the official responded: “I cannot absolutely put to rest your concern that girls might find themselves in a locker room or dressing room in the presence of a person who expresses or asserts herself as a woman but who still has male genitals, but based on my own sense of the prevalence of that condition in the population, I think the likelihood of that occurring is remote.”

Sharing school facilities isn’t the only objection CRC has with the bill. Dr. Ruth Jacobs, an infectious disease specialist and CRC's representative testified before the Council on October 2. She told the Council that the American Psychiatric Association recognizes Gender Identity Disorder as a mental illness. “No one has studied the effects of having a grade teacher Bob one day, and a cross dressing Susan the next. No one has proven that early introduction of gender change as normal and healthy is safe for children’s long term health and for their own gender identity development. We would be outraged if someone struggling with a mental illness was hired by the schools, yet this bill forces the school to hire a mentally ill person,” she stated.

The bill was sponsored by Council members Duchy Trachtenberg, Valerie Ervin, and Marc Elrich with the support of Equality Maryland, an organization promoting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. It was quietly introduced on September 11, 2007, which some say was a stealth tactic during that heavy news day.

Last March, the state’s Senate Judicial Proceedings committee rejected legislation that would have added “gender identity” as a protected class to Maryland’s existing antidiscrimination law. The bill is expected to come up before the General Assembly in a future session.

Gender identity was being addressed at the Federal level by the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). However, its sponsor, Rep. Barney Frank, dropped ‘gender identity’ as a class, in an effort to secure passage. The bill now focuses on adding job protection for homosexuals.