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WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Reports that a man dressed as a woman entered a locker room at a Gaithersburg gym Monday have given new ammunition to a conservative group’s efforts to overturn a bill that extends anti-discrimination rights to transgendered people.
But others, including bill sponsor and Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg, have decried the unwelcome visit as little more than a public-relations stunt.
A woman who was in a locker room at Rio Sport and Health in Gaithersburg said a man dressed in heavy female makeup and a blue skirt entered the women’s locker room, frightening patrons who were in various states of undress. The incident was publicized by the group, Citizens for a Responsible Government, which protested Trachtenberg’s bill.
The group has argued that the bill, which passed in November, puts women and children at greater risk to assault when they should have the expectation of privacy.
“It’s not something women are accustomed to, I don’t think women want to be accustomed to,” Citizens for a Responsible Government spokeswoman Michelle Turner said Wednesday.
Kelly Nicholson, general manager for the gym, said the person exited the locker room quickly and the gym could not verify that the incident had occurred. The offender has not been identified, and Nicholson said she questioned whether the person was actually transgendered.
She assured the safety of all gym members at Rio.
Turner said CRG members have collected about 5,000 signatures of the 25,000 required to place a referendum on the November ballot seeking to overturn the transgender bill. Half of those signatures are due Feb. 4, Turner said.
Because of that impending deadline, Trachtenberg accused the group of staging the incident to drum up support for its cause. She said she knows of no reports of similar incidents.
“I really do wonder about it,” Trachtenberg said.
Turner said her group had nothing to do with it.
“Absolutely not. No,” Turner said. “We don’t know who this individual is other than what Rio has had to say about it.”
cmabeus@dcexaminer.com
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6:13 AM MST on Sat., Jan. 19, 2008 re: "Transgender bill facing new round of opposition"
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9:05 PM MST on Fri., Jan. 18, 2008
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4:21 PM MST on Thu., Jan. 17, 2008
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Examiner Reader said:
Yet another thing to add to the list of reasons why I'm glad that I moved out of Montgomery County.
47 agree | 53 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
"distinctly Personal and private" refers to accomodations. "accomodations" are not bathrooms. Bathrooms are facilities. Sport and Health is using the "distinctly personal and private" clause to claim they are exempt from the law as a private club. Private accomodations and their facilities (bathrooms) are exempt from the law. Public accomodations and their facilities are not exempt from the law. But, case law says that health clubs are public accomodations.... so Sport and Health may not be exempt.
52 agree | 42 disagree
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Fact Check said:
Not true. Bottom line, you conveniently left out the part of the law that exempts bathrooms/locker rooms: Accommodations that are "distinctly personal or private." Here are the reasons that this incident was clearly a stunt: 1) Turner's pro-discrimination group hasn't been able to get much support or many signatures on their petition, because people think they are hysterical and mean-spirited. They needed to do something to change that. 2) There are nearly 100 other jurisdictions in the U.S. with similar laws in effect. Over many years, there has never been a single instance of a man pretending to be a transgender woman to gain access to a ladies' room. It just doesn't happen. 3) Turner's group has a long history of using theatrics, hyperbole, and misleading statements to achieve its goals. This kind of thing is exactly their M.O.
55 agree | 52 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Bottom line, what the guy did (cross-dresser, transsexual or whatever) under the new law is perfectly legal. "An ..agent..of any place of public accommodation in the County must not, with respect to the accommodation: …..make any distinction with respect to …gender identity in connection with… use of any facility (bathrooms, lockers or showers)…” "Gender identity means an individual’s actual or perceived gender, including a person’s gender-related appearance, expression, image, identity, or behavior, whether or not those gender-related characteristics differ from the characteristics customarily associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth.”
59 agree | 58 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
"Kelly Nicholson, general manager for the gym, said the person exited the locker room quickly and the gym could not verify that the incident had occurred. The offender has not been identified, and Nicholson said she questioned whether the person was actually transgendered." Anyone with an ounce of sense knows how ludicrous this claim is. A transgender woman at a gym wearing heavy make-up and a ruffled skirt? Give me a break. This is such an obvious hoax, perpetrated by people who don't have the facts on their side. Let's just say that her behavior with regard to the Montgomery County sex ed curriculum leaves Michelle Turner with approximately zero trustworthiness.
62 agree | 53 disagree
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