As Republicans descend on Cleveland next week touting one of the most right-wing and transphobic platforms in modern history, the Cleveland City Council has a message of its own: Not in our town.
The city council unanimously passed a measure Wednesday evening affirming the right of transgender individuals to use the bathroom matching their gender identity. Leila Atassi writes:
The legislation removes a passage from the existing nondiscrimination ordinance that allowed for owners of private business with "public accommodations" to discriminate based on a person's gender identity or expression and dictate which bathroom a person should use, "provided reasonable access to adequate facilities is available."
By contrast, the proposed GOP platform states its emphatic support for "the original, authentic meaning of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972," meaning that including transgender Americans under the umbrella of "sex" discrimination isn't "authentic." Also, efforts to open access to transgender individuals in "restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities is at once illegal, ominous, and ignores privacy issues."
That's what you get when homo-hater Tony Perkins basically writes the LGBT portion of the platform. But as the nation tunes into the Cleveland spectacle, viewers will also be treated to a nationally televised ad depicting discrimination against a transgender woman. Check it out.
The ad will air on Fox News right around the time Donald Trump addresses the convention. It’s transgender 101 and relies on gender stereotypes, but that’s likely exactly what’s necessary at this stage of the game.