Transgendered guidelines 'onerous, dim-witted'
Kennebec Journal Staff
The Maine Human Rights Commission has decided that it wants more public input before it issues its "transgendered guidelines" to Maine schools.
What a magnanimous decision and gesture. Especially since the public has heretofore been completely shut out from any input on this unhealthy proposal.
As a member of the public, therefore, I have a few questions to put before the commission: Is it true that boys will be able to use girls' bathrooms just because these boys just might "perceive" themselves to be girls?
What is the actual purpose behind this proposal? Whom do these proposed guidelines really serve? And where is the groundswell of support, of people clamoring for transgendered bathrooms? (That certainly wasn't what I sensed at the meeting.)
It's hard to believe that this commission is being asked to even consider such an idea. It defies reality, it defies reason, and it certainly is not for the good of Maine schoolchildren.
Not to mention the complete disregard for their safety that the commission would be exhibiting -- should this ruling take place. Its sense of propriety, its objective concern, therefore, must be for the children's well-being -- not for accommodating the homosexual agenda.
I believe the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) played too major a role in writing these guidelines. To accommodate them, must the commission sacrifice our schoolchildren as fodder for their grist mill? This is not San Francisco or Los Angeles; this is Maine.
These onerous and dim-witted guidelines must be rejected.
Pat Truman
Hallowell
Were you interviewed for this story? If so, please fill out our accuracy form
Most...
Copyright ©2010 MaineToday Media, Inc.
21 COMMENTS
Jarody said...
Amen
March 12, 2010 at 1:18 AM Report abuse
HesterPrynne said...
When they use the bathroom that is considered 'correct' by their biological trappings, they feel like they are being punished all over again by this painful problem. Isn't it enough they have been afflicted with this birth defect? This is one small step to help them feel more comfortable in their own skin. AND it's the law. Discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender expression and gender identity is illegal in Maine. This guideline simply helps schools to be in compliance and to avoid law suits.
March 12, 2010 at 8:54 AM Report abuse
liberte said...
Ok Hester, what about the 100 girls who have to use the bathroom with the 1 boy who claims to be a girl. Are you so PC now that the majority must yield to the one. That borders on anarchy. Once again I submit: If I think I'm a tree does it make me a tree?
March 12, 2010 at 9:26 AM Report abuse
Cat_Lover said...
What do you do in your own home, Liberte? Do you have a bathroom for boys and one for girls? What do they do in airplanes? Some offices now have single bathrooms. Maybe in a school there could be one small bathroom with just two or three stalls. People who don't care who's in the stall next to them could use that one. In girl's bathrooms there are always stalls. They don't stand in an open urinal like men do. Just what do people think goes on in a bathroom anyway? In all of my 62 years, the most 'revealing' thing I've seen in a bathroom, is for a woman to lift her dress to adjust the lines on her nylons...and that's an era that has gone by. Simply make small adjustments. It can be made to work without big money being spent.
March 12, 2010 at 9:31 AM Report abuse
Icy said...
This misguided step to allow a transgendered student to feel comfortable in his or her own skin, should not be forced on other students. Has anyone asked them how they would feel? This is a drastic change from the norm and needs to be delayed until better solutions are found. If separate bathrooms cannot be established for this small minority of students, then the next best solution would be to allow them to use the teacher's bathrooms. An adult would surely be better prepared to deal with such a situation than our children would. The children MUST be protected from the difficulties that could arise were these guidelines passed allowing students of the opposite sex to share bathrooms.
March 12, 2010 at 9:44 AM Report abuse
HesterPrynne said...
Icy, I don't disagree with most of what you've said. But what 'difficulties' do you foresee that will occur if these guidelines are passed? What will happen to boys if there is a girl in the BR? What will happen to girls if there is a boy in their BR? I'm not sure what harm people are expecting to occur. Do school children not realize there are biological differences between boys and girls? In my experience many children shower with their parents from the time they are old enough to stand up and not be afraid of the water. What are they going to see, experience, that they haven't encountered already? Yes, it is an different concept, no question about that. But just what horrors will occur if a boy realizes girls pee sitting down or a girl realizes boys pee standing up? What's going to happen? No one has spoken about that yet.
March 12, 2010 at 9:50 AM Report abuse
liberte said...
Cat lover: In my home the bathroom is NOT communal idiot! That IS the point. If schools want to have a SEPARATE no gender bathroom. Go for it. I don't care if there are "stalls" or whatever. It's the POINT. Some things simply are NOT appropriate
March 12, 2010 at 10:39 AM Report abuse
Helena said...
Right, on, Pat!! Let's just deal with these freakoids the old fashioned way - bully the heck out of them till they commit suicide!! I still don't understand why going peepee or poopoo is such a sacred act. The only reason kids might have a problem with a unisex bathroom is bacause of those like Pat Truman who are zealots in the pursuit of an anally-fixated society. You'd think God was waiting to strike you by lightning if you walked into a bathroom already containing members of the opposite sex. Next we'll have to segregate kids to blow their noses. Jeezum, go find a hobby.
March 12, 2010 at 10:53 AM Report abuse
HesterPrynne said...
A Mississippi high school cancelled an entire senior prom rather than allow a lesbian student to bring her girlfriend to the dance. Now tell me that we don't need better guidelines in schools. The ACLU is involved fortunately, and hopefully will be able to bring this backwater school into the 21st century. Here's a clip from the student's interview on TV. It's all over FaceBook by the way. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6292187n&tag=api%20
March 12, 2010 at 10:54 AM Report abuse
HesterPrynne said...
Liberte, how about answering the question 'what bad thing will happen?' I've yet to see anyone discuss that. Are little male-to-female transchildren going to sexually assault 'straight' 7 year olds in the bathroom? Are little female-to-male transchildren going to cut off the penis of little boys? What is the horror that people are trying to protect our children from?
March 12, 2010 at 11:33 AM Report abuse
HesterPrynne said...
Icy, what are the 'difficulties' from which the children need to be protected?
March 12, 2010 at 2:05 PM Report abuse
TEdCVGFjdGl2aXN0 said...
Being transgendered is NOT a perception. It is very real in the lives of many. We do not perceive to be what we are not. Thank you for agreeing with many out there that transgendered children should NOT have to conform to idealistics created by those of us fortunate enough to not have to question our gender. I do believe that there are some out there born into a biological body that is does not match their biological mind and this IS a medically proven event. These children (and even adults) should not be given an only option. They should be allowed to use facilities at which coordinate with who that person really is. If Mary was born physically Martin and knows as much Mary should have the opportunity to use the restroom that coordinates with who she truly is, not be dictated by the physical attributes that obviously do not belong.
March 12, 2010 at 5:48 PM Report abuse
sledder said...
Look, if you have a penis, you use the men's room, if not, use the ladies room. GET OVER IT
March 12, 2010 at 9:12 PM Report abuse
fishin said...
Thank you Hester for that webpage. Icy said "An adult would surely be better prepared to deal with such a situation than our children would." I think that video shows exactly the opposite. When a school board cancels a prom because of a lesbian wanting to go to it, does one really think that these adults could handle this BR issue? Frankly I just don't see why this should be a problem.
March 12, 2010 at 9:45 PM Report abuse
AKMaineiac said...
The "defect" is on the other end of the body from the "bathroom parts". If you've got male sex organ, I have a news flash for you, you're male. It's most likely something you're going to have to get used to. If you do not have a male sex organ, you're female. That too, is something you're going to have to get used to. If they're working, like they should, there is no "defect" involved. You've got what you were born with, like everybody else. The inmates have taken over the institution, and are running it now. Whole world's gone absolutely crazy.
March 13, 2010 at 3:24 AM Report abuse
Divinity said...
AKMaineiac's snarky, anonymous comment sounds like what Richard Connor might attribute to Richard Head, known since elementary school as Dick.
March 13, 2010 at 9:52 AM Report abuse
AKMaineiac said...
"Snarky"? Possibly, but sometimes reality will just pop out of nowhere and smack a person right in the beak when they're looking someplace else. Some people think that's "snarky", others might attribute it to calling it what it is. We've got a country full of people that are sick with depression, anorexia, drug abuse, and a host of other problems that are either killing them slowly or quickly. They don't have self-discipline and awareness enough to stop eating and sitting themselves to death. On the other end of the spectrum is the crowd that can't quit starving, exercising, and puking themselves into an early grave. Used to look at "type A's" and say, "Gee, if I were more them I could save the world." Now, I thank God every day I'm not, and save myself and the people I deal with on a day to day basis. I am sorry for anyone who thinks they got the wrong body. It's a hell of a fix to be in. Certainly hope something works out for them.
March 13, 2010 at 10:36 AM Report abuse
AKMaineiac said...
I do have a question. One of the professionals I have worked with has staffed several Olympic Games. He told a story about this little blonde athlete from some country. Her blood tests came back that she was male. He said, "Nice looking, very attractive, petite, young woman in her late teens. Had X-Y chromosomes, a boyfriend, and was crushed by the revelation that she was male, and never have children. There is likely a "spectrum" between the two ends of the variation (male and female) which are "between". Because statistically "Normal" is the typical "rule" most of us don't become much more than aware of this. Somewhere out there is a woman in a man's body, and a man in a woman's body. What "determines" in the mind of the individual "male or female"? Nature or nurture, both? Young children become self-aware in stages, and that self-awareness completes itself over the life span in some people. In a few it comes to a screeching halt at a point and never starts over again.
March 13, 2010 at 11:09 AM Report abuse
HesterPrynne said...
AKM, I have posted three times now an answer to your question. For whatever reason it won't go through. Google 'inter-sex children'. That should answer your question.
March 13, 2010 at 3:03 PM Report abuse
oldgrump said...
The US population seems to be way too concerned about nudity and sexuality/sex. But then, considering a good many of them are decendants of a group that was so puritanical that even the "stuffy" British kicked them out. They weren't called "Puritans" because of their love of life.
March 13, 2010 at 3:47 PM Report abuse
Myrtle said...
I can do without Pat Truman's input.
March 15, 2010 at 8:56 PM Report abuse