Transmissions: The Real Predators

By Gwendolyn Ann Smith
After five hours of public comments that often proved contentious, Charlotte, North Carolina voted down a non-discrimination ordinance that would have provided protections for LGBT residents of the city. This would have been North Carolina's first LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance, but it failed on a 6-5 vote.
Yes, one of the biggest issues on the table was transgender use of public facilities. Those opposed to the bill ran radio advertisements raising the specter of sexual predators using transgender bathroom protections as a way to assault women and children. It was this more than anything else that caused lawmakers to pause.
Prior to the vote, the bill was amended to disallow transgender people the use of appropriately gendered facilities. This led two Democratic council members to vote against the bill.
That the bill was amended to deny the rights of people like me is offensive. That Charlotte will continue to allow discrimination against all LGBT people is also offensive. Yet there was something worse done in Charlotte that night, and something that points to the future of the debate about transgender people being allowed appropriate facilities.
At the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center, while the hearing was ongoing, a 17-year old girl went into the public restroom on the second floor. After doing her business, local anti-LGBT street preacher Flip Benham confronted her. "Young Man," called out Benham, "you got to get out of there!"
This was one of two transgender people that Benham so assaulted at the Government Center, both of which Benham called "transvestites" and that they were "dressed in drag." Benham also made it clear that he would be willing to go even farther.
"You know I'd be greatly concerned if my daughters were in the bathroom and I saw a man dressed in drag," said Benham. "I'd be more than concerned, I'd drag that queen right out of that bathroom. I mean, that would be the responsibility of the father. And then I'd go to jail for that."
Flip Benham has previously been convicted for stalking an abortion doctor, and is no stranger to provocative — even dangerous — actions.
I've talked previously about a bill currently pending in Kentucky that will block transgender students from using gender-appropriate restrooms. One of the more disturbing facets of that bill is that it will award other students $2,500 every time they discover a transgender student in their school's restrooms.
That bill has now passed the Kentucky Senate. It has also been added as an amendment to HB 236, a bill requiring committees to screen new school superintendents that has been widely expected to pass.
I've also spoken about a bill in Florida to criminalize transgender restroom use, which would jail transgender people for up to a year and fine them up to $1,000 for entering a public facility in line with their gender identity.
This bill is also moving forward.
Finally, I talked about Texas, which had a bill similar to Florida's, but with higher penalties — including penalties for businesses who allow transgender people to use appropriate facilities. Texas now has additional bills along the same lines, including HB 2801 which will not only make schools liable for transgender students using appropriate facilities but — like the Kentucky bill — will include a $2,000 bounty for catching transgender people as well as whatever amount a judge might award for the "mental anguish" of having been in the restroom with a transgender person.
The argument that so many of these bills and attacks is that allowing transgender people to use appropriate facilities will "open the stall door" for predators. To date, this has not shown to be the case in any place where these protections already exist. That basic fact, however, has not swayed the emotion-based thinking of those swayed by fears of these unseen sexual predators.
One thing I think worth noting that by equating transgender rights with sexual predators, a false connection is made. It is the same argument that was used to blunt gay rights in the 1980s and 1990s, with the connection between gay rights battles and fears of organizations such as the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) assaulting straight youth. The more the "bathroom predator" concept is introduced into this battle, the more transgender people come closer to being painted as these predators.
I never thought that the big battleground for transgender rights would be the toilet. I look at how many of us — particularly trans women of color — are murdered. I look at our suicide rate. I look at all the other ill treatment we face, and it bemuses me that it all boils down to bathrooms.
I want to leave you with my greatest fear in all this. This is the "end game," of all these bills, presuming they pass. These bills will give people like Flip Benham the ammunition he so craves. This will allow for discrimination of transgender people on a grander scale and will cause an at-risk community to be even further at-risk.
This will not just affect transgender people too, of course: imagine being a non-transgender person who gets netted in all this and has to prove — perhaps even the court of law — what your gender is.
Think of that 17-year-old transgender girl, who had to face Benham when she used the restroom. She was obviously not there to assault anyone, but Benham treated her as the worst of criminals. Imagine for a moment if you were that girl, facing an angry man calling you names when you stepped out of the restroom.
That person will gain a bounty of thousands of dollars for doing so — and you will end up in jail.