Term Bender
http://citypaper.com/news/term-bender-1.11648226/22/11
I read with keen interest "Transgender Gap" (The Queer Issue, June 15), which addressed the Maryland gender-identity legislation. I supported HB 235 because I have friends who are trans and who are impacted by irrational discrimination. Although I supported HB 235, I have long questioned the definition of gender identity in this bill and others like it. Additionally, HB 235 avoided the thorny issue of public accommodations by excluding them. If Maryland will consider a bill that includes public accommodations in 2012, bill proponents will have difficulty if they do not address why we have sex-segregated facilities in the first instance.
Females rationally discriminate in some instances because of our biology, and Maryland has installed protections based on such rational discrimination into the Maryland human relations title. Specifically, the law allows, with regard to public accommodations, sex-based discrimination by a facility 1) uniquely private and personal in nature, and 2) designed to accommodate only a particular sex. This exception to the antidiscrimination law for public accommodations covers all space segregated by sex, including bathrooms, locker rooms, and public showers.
