Easily the most f*cked up thing I've read today...

I stumbled on this kind of by accident this evening. I can't tell whether I'm more pissed off or sickened.

Background: Lawmakers in Montgomery County, Maryland, are considering adding language to include gender identity in its non-discrimination laws. Yes, I know this sounds like nothing more than a bunch over overly conscientious liberals with too much time on their hands. But unfortunately, discrimination against trans-gendered people is alive and well in America, a country whose Constitution specifically allows for equal protection under the law for ALL people, whether you personally approve of their lifestyles or not.

And I realize that gender identity may not seem like a hot topic to the 9 out of 10 of us who fit comfortably at the straight ends of the spectrum. But it's real. Witness the case of this woman, who was thrown out of a women's restroom in New York (that stronghold of gender-pure conservatives) because she didn't look enough like a woman. At least according to the male bouncer who did the kicking-out. Because, as we all know, men are the only real arbiters of what constitutes womanhood.

So I completely support the idea of the Montgomery County Council's proposed legislation, recognizing that, in its real-world application, there will obviously be some practical issues to iron out. But I have to confess that how to keep pedophiles from showering with little girls wasn't really something for which I'd game-planned .

But then again, I'm not a right-wing pervert. I don't know about the Larry Craig/Bob Allen set, but in the restrooms and locker rooms that I frequent, we have stalls. And we use them, judiciously, if we have qualms about being seen stark naked by perfect strangers. Yet for some reason, the primary opposition to the gender identity bill seems to be the alleged danger that public facilities will be wide open to whatever Tom, Dick (he-he, I wrote "Dick") or Harry should wander by in a dress.

*Sigh*

A) Once again, WE HAVE STALLS. Go hide in one if you're that terrified of the chicks with dicks.

B) A trans-gendered man is trans-gendered because HE LIKES DUDES. And vice versa for the trans-gendered women. The bill would allow people to use the restroom/locker room etc. that corresponds with his/her/zher preferred identity. Force a gay woman who'd rather be a man to use a women's restroom, and you're doing the exact OPPOSITE of what you want to accomplish.

C) It's 2007. Can we PLEASE drop the notion that all non-heterosexuals are predators? At least in the absence of some actual empirical evidence? Thank you.

D) I thought you anti-LGBT rights folks were all about American Gothic family values. If you're so worried about Little Susie seeing some dude's duct tape, then why aren't you in the locker room with her?

E) Should a clever pedophile cross-dress and spend his/her days camping out in the locker room at the public pool...that's why God invented PRISONS. And COPS. Try calling them. Sheesh.

And finally...Why does the conversation focus on men in the women's rooms? It works both ways, you know. Oh, right, I forgot. Women who prey on boys are hot. The rest of us wimmins need 'round the clock protection, despite the fact that the vast majority of sexual assaults are committed by non-strangers.

Which brings me to the most f*cked up thing I've read today. TeachTheFacts.org has posted a few letters that the Montgomery County Council has received opposing the bill. Now, I can absolutely respect that people might have issues with the bill, but these are BEYOND f*cked up. Especially the second one, which reads in part:

"Allowing men who think they’re women into women’s bathrooms and locker rooms?

ARE YOU PEOPLE OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MINDS?

Hopefully, it will be one of your daughters who gets raped first!"

Ooh...Yes, rape is such an appropriate punishment for a relative of lawmaker who has the temerity to actually enforce the law. I want to find this SOB (his name is Gabriel Espinosa) and just...talk to him. I wouldn't bother exploring the deep-seated misogyny in his remark, though it screams out at me like a flashing neon sign reading "I hate women! To me women are nothing more than objects and sex is the tool of their degradation!" because anyone who uses that kind of language in a civic discussion most likely lacks the intellectual capacity to grasp my meaning.

I'd just say this, to Mr. Espinosa and anyone who read his letter and thought, "Yeah! You go, Gabriel!":

I sincerely hope you never have to learn from personal experience how deeply traumatic rape is. It's the theft of the one thing over which you have true control, your body, and it can never be given back. I hope you lose just a little sleep tonight after wishing this on someone else's child in order to prove your own wrong-headed political opinion.

I sincerely hope that neither you or anyone about whom you care is the target of discrimination or violence due to an incontrovertible fact of your/their person-hood.

I sincerely hope that you aren't so repressed that you view your own gender identity as nothing more than a sex thing, which is apparently what you believe to be true of anyone who isn't hetero-normative like you.

But mainly, I would say this: I'm a woman. And I don't need your F*CKING help.