Michelle Duggar Tries (and Fails) to Fight an Anti-Discrimination Bill
The beautiful thing about freedom of speech is that it allows people to say whatever they want. The problem with free speech is that it allows people, all people, to say whatever they want. For more on that same topic, we go to 19 Kids and Counting (ex)star, Michelle Duggar.
Fayetteville City, Arkansas proposed an important anti-discrimination bill that protects citizens from unfair treatment based on sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic background, marital status or veteran status. Great news, considering there is no state-wide law offering the same protections. Well, Michelle Duggar took personal issue, on an issue that would not affect her personally. In the lead up to the ordinance vote, Duggar sent out an alarmist robocall that men would now be allowed to use female-only spaces in order to harm women and children.
In actuality, she’s referring to transwomen: “The Fayetteville City Council is voting on an ordinance that would allow men – yes, I said men – to use women's and girls' restrooms, locker rooms, showers, sleeping areas and other areas that are designated for females only. I don't believe the citizens of Fayetteville would want males with past child predator convictions that claim they are female to have a legal right to enter private areas that are reserved for women and girls.”
There are a few glaring oversights and incorrect assumptions in Duggar’s statement. The first being that transwomen are not men in disguise who are just looking to sneak into the womens’ restroom. They are women. They live as women. And in a growing number of states, they are legally recognized as such, with many adopting state-wide anti-discrimination laws that protect on the basis of gender identity, and others allowing for a person to change their legal sex including a new birth certificate (if the person has had sexual affirmation surgery). It seems like an awful lot of work to go through just to sneak around separated spaces, don’t you think? Duggar also ignores the instances where assaults on children have been done by same-sex adults, in the “correct” bathrooms and locker rooms.
The truth is that trans people face a huge risk when it comes to public bathrooms themselves, often with tragic results. As a minority group highly at risk for violence and sexual assault, they need protection too. It’s not like they can count on the Michelle Duggars of the world to intervene.
Luckily for all sane people, the ordinance passed in a 6-2 vote. But, unfortunately, seeing as how Michelle Duggar has ties to the Family Research Council (a recognized hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center) we can’t expect her, or bigots like her, to shut up any time soon.
[Pic via Wikimedia Commons - Jim Bob Duggar]
