Gender Identity Ordinance to be voted by Tampa City Council

Florida's Tampa City Council is considering adding a new Gender Identity Ordinance to the city’s non-discrimination laws. The vote may come as early as tomorrow. This new gender identity ordinance would allow, among other things, entry to the opposite sex’s bathrooms for people who may be transgender, gender-confused or transsexual; allow cross-dressing in classrooms and places of business; and may dictate that religious organizations and businesses hire against their beliefs. The ordinance sounds good without thinking it through to possible repercussions.

The entire proposed Gender Identity Ordinance can be seen here.The intended phrase to describe gender identity is as follows: “Gender identity or expression means gender-related identity, appearance, expression or behavior of an individual, regardless of the individual’s assigned sex at birth.”

First, it should be clear that gender-challenged people aren’t necessarily homosexual. In fact, they may want to be another sex so they can have sexual relationships with the opposite sex.

A “gender identity” crisis may mean someone really believes they were born the wrong sex. A person in a gender identity crisis may be in a tremendous amount of pain. Any hope that people may offer - psychologically based or certainly religiously based - to help them feel better in their current skin - may be silenced as “hate speech.”

Contrary to what some may believe, there are Christians who are fully capable of loving all people and treating them nicely with respect, but would still want the opportunity to tell the person in crisis that God doesn’t make mistakes, and that they may be able to love themselves as they are through His love. This new law would take away a chance to offer the person what some may consider hope, for it would be considered hate by others. Therefore, this new classification is protected to the point of being given preference over another protected class - religious orientation.

If Bible believers are soon forced by law to hire or house a transgendered, transsexual or gender-challenged person (as well as anyone of a homosexual orientation), we shouldn’t be hesitant or afraid. This is our chance to show that we can be loving and kind rather than judgmental; it could be a chance to build one-on-one relationships toward earning their respect enough to have an occasion to tell them about the goodness of God, and why we believe in Him. This is way different than shouting what sounds like hatred from bully soapboxes.

However, the transgender person might also be open to the fact that he/she now has a law in their favor which negates the rights of others to conduct business in a manner of their choice. If given the opportunity to work in a religiously oriented business, or live in a building owned by a religious person, and the transgender person wants their own opinions heard and respected, it is only fair that they should try to be open to hearing the people of that faith; as long as it is in a non-threatening, non-coerced conversation. Being a victim of hate is one thing - looking for opportunities to accuse others of hate speech is another.

Although pedophilia is not connected with gender identity crisis, being transsexual or cross dressing, and is often committed by heterosexuals, there is no new proposed law to keep pedophilia an unacceptable act. Most non-discrimination laws that now include sexual orientation do not have provisions differing between sexual orientations. There are pedophilia groups already claiming protection under similar laws.

Pedophiles and other sexual predators may fake transgenderism or cross dressing as an opportunity for their crime. Capitalizing on this new gender protection law, they may pose as transsexuals or cross-dressers as an excuse to invade our required “all orientation restrooms” looking for victims. Where is the would-be victims’ protection? A male sexual predator walks into a ladies’ room dressed as a woman, strikes up a conversation to get someone off guard, and boom – we have a rape, or abduction of a female child.

What happens to these criminals in court if they are caught? Will they simply play on the sympathies of political correctness? This mentality of stretching the definition of what’s okay is destroying us from within.

Please note: This writer does not hate anyone, and will continue trying to peacefully and sensibly express the hope of God and Christ to others, as long as they feel they have the right to express their own beliefs.

This article was originally published and copyrighted by TBO.com (Tampa Tribune Newspaper online) on Tuesday, November 17, and can be seen here. All rights reserved.