FL: Trans Rights Under Attack

A year old transgender rights ordinance in college-town Gainesville, Florida is under attack by right-wingers who are attempting to repeal trans protections via a March ballot measure. And typically, they are using the old "scary pervert in the restroom" ploy to terrify voters.

A blond girl heads from a playground into a women's restroom. A scruffy man, lurking outside, darts in behind her. "Your City Commission Made This Legal,'' the words on the TV screen read. And it's true, sort of. The dark ad came from opponents of a gender identity provision added last year to the city's anti-discrimination ordinance, which now allows the city's roughly 100 transgender residents to use whichever restroom they're most comfortable using.

Foes want to repeal the new protection with a March 24 ballot measure that has divided Gainesville, a generally gay-friendly university city surrounded by staunchly conservative north Florida. Those who support the transgender protections say their opponents are really unleashing a broader attack on the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender individuals in general.

The city commission approved the restroom provision by a 4-3 vote a year ago. Before the ink could dry, Bible-quoting opponents angrily began working for its repeal. "You are trying to operate in a realm you do not have the authority to operate in,'' one pastor, George Brantley, told the commissioners. The debate is expected to become noisier as the ballot nears with opponents resorting to more TV ads and campaigns pegged to such slogans as ? "Keep Men out of Women's Restrooms and vice versa.''

Here's the clip running on Florida TV: