Leaders of a group seeking to overturn a new Montgomery County law that bars discrimination against transgender people object to how local leaders worded a ballot referendum that could overturn the rule.
The referendum’s wording, as approved by Montgomery County Council members Tuesday, mimics the languageof the law itself, saying: “Shall the Act to prohibit discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations, cable television service and taxicab service on the basis of gender identity become law?”
Michelle Turner, spokeswoman for the social conservative group that spearheaded petition signature collection to allow the public to vote on the law, said the ballot measure’s language focuses too much on the discrimination angle, and should center more on personal privacy.
Her group, Citizens for a Responsible Government, has told people the law would allow men to enter women’s restrooms. The group is an offshoot of the socially conservative Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum that unsuccessfully tried to bar Montgomery public schools from teaching students that homosexuality is a biological trait.
County leaders say the law would not change current restroom protocol and changed the measure to exclude “distinctly private and personal” settings after initial protests from the group.
“They make it sound like we are trying to deny these individuals basic everyday rights,” Turner said. “All we are asking is that the citizens of Montgomery County, primarily women and children, be afforded privacy in bathrooms, showers, locker rooms, etc. We are not advocating that anybody be denied a taxicab.”
Mary Anne Arnow, a transgender woman and employee of gay rights group Equality Maryland, said she is not surprised to hear Turner’s group has a problem with the referendum’s language.
“The fact is the people who are the most conservatively opposed are always going to take issue with anything that validates the public existence or presence of transgender individuals, regardless of political or legislative precedent,” Arnow said, adding that Montgomery followed 13 states, the District, Baltimore City and 90 other local jurisdictions in approving protections for transgender people.
Bothsides of the measure are sitting tight right now waiting for Circuit Court Judge Robert Greenberg to decide whether the November ballot referendum can legally proceed. Gay rights groups argue that the county’s Board of Elections improperly calculated the number of signatures necessary to qualify for the November ballot, relying on a percentage of the total number of active voters, rather than registered voters.
