Proposed Transgender Rights Bill Sparks Controversy

Montgomery County, Md., has developed a reputation for being an enclave of liberal ideas and agendas. Few were surprised, therefore, when County Council member Duchy Trachtenberg introduced legislation that would have given transgender individuals the right to enter and use public bathrooms based on their self-identified sexuality rather than their biological sexuality. Trachtenberg, the former President of the Maryland National Organization for Women, has long been an advocate for transgender rights. Elected to the Council in 2006, Trachtenberg even named a former transgender candidate for State Delegate, Dana Beyer, as her Chief of Staff.

When the general public found out about this proposed change in the law, most were horrified and expressed anger and distrust in Trachtenberg and the Council in general. Susan Jamison, a parent leading a group of posters, was quoted in The Washington Post as saying "People don't understand the problem. There will be no decency here. If you really want separate facilities for transgenders, spend the money to build them, but don't put boys with male genitals in with our naked daughters."

The issue of transgender rights is quite possibly even more touchy and taboo than the current debate on gay marriage and civil rights for homosexuals. Transsexuals are often discriminated against in the workplace and even when trying to find housing or apartments. There are currently no civil protections specifically for transsexuals in Maryland as there are for other minority groups. According to the article, only 13 states and the District have passed laws for transgender rights, but Trachtenberg’s proposed bill would have made such discriminations illegal in Montgomery County.

Responding to the massive uprising, Trachtenberg up until Friday afternoon stood her ground with her position on keeping the bathroom wording in her bill. "Change is difficult," she said. "I don't back down when a subject is controversial." Protests continued into the weekend, resulting Trachtenberg finally (and grudgingly) removing the clause from the bill, citing a "campaign of misinformation and hypothetical, hyperbolic rhetoric."

This article obviously brings the issue of diversity into effect by approaching the contentious subject of transgender individuals. It is mainly a news article rather than a feature (as most stories on diversity tend to be) so it’s not really written to change someone’s opinion or view on an issue. Nevertheless, the article may have benefited from more interviews with transgender individuals to hear their opinion on the bathroom issue specifically. The article exposes a common (and understandable) opinion among most people that transgender people are simply not the same as, dare I say, normal people.

I have no problem with the law in general banning workplace and housing discrimination, and it will likely pass when it goes up for vote on Tuesday. However, I agree with Jamison and others that the bathroom provision was simply too much and should never have been included. As Post columnist Marc Fisher wrote in an Op-Ed on the subject: [It] would be putting the comfort of the few over the rights of the many. People who enter a locker room reserved for members of one sex have the right to expect that everyone in the room shares the same equipment.”

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Read Marc Fisher Opinion

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