I find that I cannot sit idly by while a county department head vacillates on yet another issue and an elected official plays to the fears of the citizens with inaccurate depictions of a small minority portion of the citizenry.
As you might surmise, I refer to the recent edict from the U.S. attorney general's office concerning accommodations for transsexual persons. First off, I don't like the connection of the word "sex" when referring to issues having to do with said group. Their identity confusion is one of gender; sexual preference has nothing to do with it.
Schools Superintendent Steve Guthrie appears to be inflicted with the same problem as others have shown in similar positions of authority. He is waiting to see which way the winds of opinion blow before he will make a decision. Existing federal and state civil rights statutes mandate accommodation on the basis of an individual's personal gender identification regardless of the gender as indicated at birth. With that in mind, to me, the superintendent needs no more clarification on the issue. It is what it is, follow the law or forfeit millions of dollars in federal aid to education for the district.
Our resident guardian of all things conservative and moral, Commissioner Richard Rothschild, again is playing to the irrational fears of our citizens by purveying misunderstandings on the subject to downright falsehoods about the evils of obeying the laws. As usual he finds the boogey man behind anything coming from the administration in Washington, D.C. All of the information that I have read indicates that those with gender identity issues, at most 0.3 percent of the population, are not homosexual or bisexual by nature. Sexual orientation is not a consideration in gender identity. As simply as I can put it, those with gender identity disconnects were given the physical attributes of one gender in the womb, while their brains and hormonal chemicals lead to the identification with and the desire to be of the opposite gender. It has been reported that children as young as 4 or 5 have indicated that they relate to their opposite gender and begin to wish to live and be treated as the gender to which they identify.
These people have a difficult time throughout their lives even after they have the gender reassignment surgery. Transgendered individuals are far more likely to be the victims of bullying and assaults, sexual or otherwise than they are to be the perpetrators. Do you recall the brutal unprovoked attack on Chrissy Polis at a Baltimore County McDonald's? The commissioner only looks at the issue from the prism of prejudice. What does he think would happen to a female who identifies as male were to be found in a male restroom or shower at school or the fitness center? I doubt that such a person would be left in peace to use the toilet or shower and dress. The same problem would exist if a birth male who identifies as female, wearing feminine attire, were to enter a male restroom. Transgendered individuals are probably more desirous of privacy than the general population.
This is, to be sure, a sticky question. Accommodations need to be made. The decision as I see it is not whether but how do we as a society accomplish such an accommodation. Is it possible to retrofit the schools and other buildings with some single-user restrooms and shower facilities? If not, would it be appropriate for a staff member of the school or athletic facility to be a monitor when a transgender person has the need to use the restroom or shower?
Just as racial, religious and other forms of discrimination are illegal so should gender identity discrimination. Calm and rational decisions need to be made and government officials, elected and otherwise, need to remember that such people did not choose to be the way that they are and refrain from fear mongering and show some compassion for them in order to deal with this and all questions.
Bill Kennedy writes every other Monday from Taneytown. Email him at wlkennedyiii@verizon.net.
