A bill making its way through the Maryland General Assembly prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is drawing fierce opposition from Maryland Citizens for a Responsible Government who call it no less than “peeping tom” legislation.
According to a WorldNetDaily report the group claims that the bill offers "one of the greatest threats to privacy, safety and security that Maryland residents have ever known."
"The proposed law adds a broadly defined category of 'gender identity' to the state's existing anti-discrimination law," the organization said in an alert it issued about the plan. "Because the bill's broad definition of 'gender identity' includes 'expression and behavior,' men are not required to have undergone a sex change operation."
Dr. Ruth Jacobs, chief of the organization, said, "The effect of this bill is to give special rights to men who want to dress like women, but completely disregards the safety of vulnerable women and children.
"Restrooms and showers will be opened up to cross-dressing or female affirming men, thereby allowing undressing in front of women and children in a woman's locker room," she said.
The group believes that passage of the bill puts women in danger:
"With the bill’s vague wording, all an adult male has to do to gain legal access to facilities normally reserved for women and girls is to indicate, verbally or non-verbally, that he has a sense of being female at the moment," the organization said.
According to Equality Maryland transgender people experience bias in employment, housing, healthcare, and public accommodations. According to the group 42% of transgender people in the D.C. Area are unemployed and 19% do not have their own living space. Transgender individuals may also be denied access to social services like shelters or rape crisis centers; refused treatment, ridiculed, or denied recognition of their gender identity by health care professionals; or refused service at restaurants or stores.
They assert that similar bills in other states have been non-controversial. The New Jersey bill adding protections for transgender individuals was signed into law in December 2006, passed by a margin of 33-3 in the Senate and 69-5 in the Assembly. According to a Gonzales poll taken in August 2006, more than half of Maryland voters favor making it illegal in Maryland to discriminate against transgender people.
The bill HB474/SB566 is under consideration until the current session ends in late April. Since its introduction in the House followed by a hearing in February, no other action is scheduled. The Senate has yet to take or schedule any action on the bill.
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